Spartan C2

C2
Role sport aircraft
National origin United States
Manufacturer Spartan Aircraft Company
Designer Willis Brown[1]
First flight 1931[2]
Number built over 56[1]


The Spartan C2 is a light aircraft produced in the United States in the early 1930s as a low-cost sport machine that would sell during the Great Depression.

Design and development

The C2 is a conventional, low-wing monoplane design with two seats side-by-side in an open cockpit.[2][3] The wing was braced with struts and wires and it carried the main units of the divided fixed undercarriage. Power was supplied by a small radial engine mounted tractor-fashion in the nose, which drove a two-bladed propeller.

Spartan introduced the C2 in 1931 with a 55-hp engine, and sold 16 examples before ongoing economic circumstances brought production to a halt.[2] Spartan then built 2 examples with 165-hp engines to use in their own flying school. These latter aircraft were fitted with hoods that could be closed over the cockpit for training pilots in instrument flying.[1][4] Spartan offered this version to the U.S. military as a trainer,[5] but officials at the time believed that low-wing monoplanes were unsuitable for pilot training.[4] Spartan also tendered a proposal to the U.S. Bureau of Air Commerce to provide its inspectors with a two-seat light aircraft.[5] The design in question was probably the C2-60,[5] but in any case, the tender was not accepted.[5]

Variants

Operators

Aircraft on display

Three C2s are preserved in museums — a restored example on display at the Tulsa Air and Space Museum,[6] a restored and flyable example at the Western Antique Aeroplane & Automobile Museum in Hood River, Oregon, and an example awaiting restoration at the Golden Wings Flying Museum, Blaine, Minnesota.[7]

Specifications (C2-60)

Data from Aerofiles

General characteristics

Performance

See also

Aircraft of comparable role, configuration and era

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Spartan Aircraft Company.
Notes
  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "C2-60, -165", Aerofiles
  2. 1 2 3 4 The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Aircraft, p.2955
  3. Taylor 1989, p.835
  4. 1 2 "Spartan's Aircraft Manufacturing History"
  5. 1 2 3 4 "The Spartan Aircraft Company"
  6. "Exhibits", Tulsa Air and Space Museum
  7. "Aircraft", Golden Wings Flying Museum
Bibliography
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