New Aircraft Quiz #6

[Doug Robertson]

Name the first production General Aviation aircraft with an engine mounted in the nose of the fuselage that offered a weather RADAR with external Radome as optional factory equipment. Make, model and first year of offer of the optional RADAR-equipped aircraft, please.

BTW, the Aircraft Quiz #5 answer is still elusive.

[Timothy Aanerud]

1978 Cessna 210

[Doug Robertson]

Timothy, thank you for the try, but-wrong answer. Please keep trying.

[Doug Robertson]

No seeming action here on this quiz, so I will provide the answer. The first Weather Radar avionics with radome installed on a production General Aviation aircraft with an engine mounted on the nose was offered as an option in the 1977 Cessna model 337 Skymaster center line-thrust twin engine aircraft. Timothy was close with his answer. Cessna did offer the same installation as an option the next year, 1978 in the C210 Centurion model.

The Weather Radar radome was mounted on the right wing leading edge in each model. This installation was farther from the pilot in the left seat, minimizing his visual sight blockage by the radome.

The C337 was an improvement over the original Cessna center line-thrust C336 Skymaster of 1963 by introducing retractable tri-gear and other improvements, including a pressurized version introduced in 1972 and a turbo version, dropped in 1972 and later resurrected in 1978. Prior to 1972 the rear engine was more efficient than the front engine as the aircraft's wing then had a negative angle of incidence. This was changed to a positive angle of incidence and a with a larger front prop made climbs more effective. Best to lead with rear engine power first and monitor RPM and fuel flow per panel placard, then front engine power on takeoffs, as pilots have been know to take off with only front engine power by mistake. Not good! Robertson made a STOL conversion for the aircraft which added much utility in short field operations.

[Timothy Aanerud]

There is always a piece of information to lead you a stray in Doug's Aircraft Quiz.

[Doug Robertson]

Thank you friend Timothy, I take that as a compliment! Why make quizzes easy? That's no fun!