The Taylor Chummy, originally the Arrowing Chummy is a light utility aircraft made by the Taylor Aircraft Company in the late 1920s. It was the fore-runner of the highly successful Piper Cub series.[1]
| Chummy | |
|---|---|
| |
| Role | light utility |
| Manufacturer | Taylor Aircraft Company |
| Designer | C. Gilbert Taylor and Gordon Taylor[1] |
| First flight | February 14, 1928[2] |
| Number built | approx. 9[3] |
The Chummy was designed by brothers C. Gilbert Taylor and Gordon Taylor in 1928.[1] It is a braced, parasol-wing monoplane with two seats side-by-side in an open cockpit.[1] Power was supplied by a tractor-mounted radial engine.[2] Fixed, tailskid undercarriage was fitted, initially with a through-axle, but later with divided main units.[4] The name "Chummy" was chosen by Gilbert because of the side-by-side seating, an unusual feature in an era when tandem seating was the norm.[3]
About nine examples were built, but the exact number is uncertain due to many records being lost in a 1937 factory fire.[3] Additionally, some earlier Chummy models were rebuilt into later models.[3]
On April 24, 1928, Gordon Taylor crashed a Chummy at Ford Airport, Dearborn, Michigan.[5] His passenger, Aaron Rosenbleet, was killed instantly, and Taylor died of his injuries shortly after reaching hospital.[5] Gilbert witnessed the crash.[5] The crash was attributed to the passenger's hand "freezing" on the control stick, and subsequent Chummys included a spring-loaded safety mechanism that allowed the pilot in command to override the other set of controls.[3]
One of the C-2s built had a wing modified with a seven-degree, variable-incidence wing for entry into the Guggenheim Safe Airplane Competition.[6]
The Chummy was expensive and did not sell well, leading to the bankruptcy of the Taylor Brothers company in 1930.[6]
Data from "The Airplane Division"
General characteristics
Performance
