The MMPL Kanpur was an Indian light four-seat aircraft, designed for service and agricultural work in the early 1960s. It is a rare example[1] of an aircraft designed and built by a national air force for its own use.

Kanpur
Role Four-seat general-purpose light aircraft
National origin India
Manufacturer Maintenance Command Development Centre, Kanpur
Designer Harjandar Singh
First flight October 1961 (Kanpur II)

Design and development

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The Kanpur I was designed by an Indian Air Vice-Marshal and built in 132 days at the Indian Air Force Maintenance Command Development Centre at their Kanpur air base. A more powerful version, the Kanpur II, was intended for production as a military general-purpose and army observation machine, though serious consideration was also given to an agricultural role. For this, the prototype Kanpur I was fitted with spray bars. The Kanpur I dates from about 1960 and the Kanpur II first flew in October 1961.[1][2]

The four-seat Kanpur was a conventional single-engine, braced high-wing monoplane with a fixed conventional undercarriage. It had a steel structure, mostly fabric-covered. The constant chord wings were built around two spars and with 1° 26' of dihedral. They were braced on each side with a pair of V-struts from the two spars to the lower fuselage longerons. Metal-skinned split flaps and fixed leading edge slots were fitted.[2]

The fully glazed cabin was under the wing, with the four occupants in two rows of side-by-side seats. The Kanpur pilot had standard blind flying instrumentation and a STR-9X radio. The air-cooled engine, a flat four in the Kanpur I and a flat six in the Kanpur II, drove a two-blade propeller. The Kanpur's main wheels were mounted on cantilever, faired legs attached to the lower fuselage through liquid shock absorbers. There was a small tailwheel at the extreme tail, where the tailplane was placed on the upper fuselage. The elevator had a cut-out for the rounded rudder which extended to the keel, hung on a fin smoothly merged into the upper fuselage.[2]

Variants

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Kanpur I: Prototype, with a four-cylinder, 142 kW (190 hp) Lycoming air-cooled horizontally opposed engine.

Kanpur II: Intended for production with a six-cylinder, 186 kW (250 hp) Lycoming air-cooled horizontally opposed engine. It was 250 mm (9.8 in) longer, a little heavier on take-off and had a maximum speed 39 km/h (24 mph) greater.

Specifications (Kanpur II)

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Data from Jane's All the World's Aircraft 1962/3[2]

General characteristics

  • Crew: One
  • Capacity: Three passengers
  • Length: 8.07 m (26 ft 6 in)
  • Wingspan: 11.53 m (37 ft 10 in)
  • Height: 2.29 m (7 ft 6 in)
  • Wing area: 18.58 m2 (200.0 sq ft) gross
  • Airfoil: NACA airfoil 4312
  • Empty weight: 771 kg (1,700 lb)
  • Max takeoff weight: 1,179 kg (2,599 lb)
  • Fuel capacity: 182 L (40 imp gal; 48 US gal) in wing tanks, provision for wing strut mounted external tanks.
  • Powerplant: 1 × Lycoming O-540-A1B5 flat six, air-cooled, 190 kW (250 hp)
  • Propellers: 2-bladed Harzell A2XK-1

Performance

  • Maximum speed: 220 km/h (140 mph, 120 kn) at sea level
  • Cruise speed: 161 km/h (100 mph, 87 kn) economical
  • Stall speed: 66 km/h (41 mph, 36 kn)
  • Never exceed speed: 274 km/h (170 mph, 148 kn) in dive
  • Range: 740 km (460 mi, 400 nmi) internal tanks
  • Service ceiling: 6,250 m (20,510 ft) service
  • Rate of climb: 5.9 m/s (1,160 ft/min) at sea level
  • Take-off run: 131 m (430 ft)
  • Landing run: 106 m (348 ft)

References

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  1. ^ a b "Asia's Aircraft Industries". Flight. Vol. 82, no. 2785. 26 July 1962. p. 136. Archived from the original on 4 May 2014.
  2. ^ a b c d Taylor, John W R (1962). Jane's All the World's Aircraft 1962–63. London: Sampson Low, Marston & Co. Ltd. pp. 73–4.