The Grumman American AA-5 series is a family of American all-metal, four-seat, light

aircraft An aircraft is a vehicle that is able to fly by gaining support from the air. It counters the force of gravity by using either static lift or by using the dynamic lift of an airfoil, or in a few cases the downward thrust from jet engine ...

used for touring and training. The line includes the original American Aviation AA-5 Traveler, the Grumman American AA-5 Traveler, AA-5A Cheetah, and AA-5B Tiger, the Gulfstream American AA-5A Cheetah and AA-5B Tiger, the American General AG-5B Tiger, and the Tiger Aircraft AG-5B Tiger.

Development

Following American Aviation's success with the AA-1 Yankee Clipper two-seat light aircraft in 1969, the company decided to produce a four-seat aircraft. They started with a new "clean-sheet" design that was designated the American Aviation AA-2 Patriot. The AA-2 design did not meet its performance goals during test-flying and only one was ever built. Still needing a four-seat aircraft to fill its product line, the company simply enlarged the external and cabin dimensions of the AA-1 Yankee to create the four-seater. This decision capitalized on the marketplace identification of the Yankee and its derivative the AA-1A Trainer and also resulted in 2/3 parts commonality between the designs, saving development time and production costs.

AA-5 Traveler

The new four-place aircraft, named the American Aviation AA-5 Traveler, was powered by a Lycoming O-320-E2G

engine An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy. Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power ...

of . It would carry four people at cruise speed and was certified under US FAR Part 23. Production of the Traveler had just started in 1971 when American Aviation was sold to

Grumman The Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation, later Grumman Aerospace Corporation, was a 20th century American producer of military and civilian aircraft. Founded on December 6, 1929, by Leroy Grumman and his business partners, it merged in 1994 ...

and became the Grumman American division. Grumman continued production of the Traveler. 834 Travelers had been produced when production of this model ceased in 1975. GrummanAA-5Traveler01

A redesign of the AA-5 was undertaken in 1974, with the resulting 1975 model Traveler featuring an aerodynamic cleanup of the engine

cowling A cowling is the removable covering of a vehicle's engine, most often found on automobiles, motorcycles, airplanes, and on outboard boat motors. On airplanes, cowlings are used to reduce drag and to cool the engine. On boats, cowlings are a cove ...

and main landing gear fairings. The tail section remained unchanged. As a result of these changes the 1975 Traveler had a cruise speed of . The Traveler was superseded in production the following year by the further refined AA-5A Cheetah.

AA-5A Cheetah

Grumman's engineers felt that the AA-5 design had more speed potential than the original Traveler, even with its 1975 improvements, and so embarked on an aerodynamic cleanup and redesign. Changes were made to the engine cowling and baffling to reduce cooling drag, the exhaust system was redesigned, the main landing gear fairings were further improved, the ventral

fin A fin is a thin component or appendage attached to a larger body or structure. Fins typically function as foils that produce lift or thrust, or provide the ability to steer or stabilize motion while traveling in water, air, or other fluids. Fin ...

was eliminated, and the horizontal tail was enlarged to allow a larger

center of gravity In physics, the center of mass of a distribution of mass in space (sometimes referred to as the balance point) is the unique point where the weighted relative position of the distributed mass sums to zero. This is the point to which a force ma ...

range. Fuel capacity was increased from the Traveler's 37 US gallons to 52 gallons, thus increasing its range. The new variant was named the AA-5A Cheetah and was introduced as a 1976 model in late 1975. In keeping with its namesake it was six knots (seven mph) faster than the Traveler with the same Lycoming O-320-E2G powerplant. Because the Cheetah looked very much like the Traveler externally, Grumman's marketing department created a "leaping cheetah" emblem to differentiate it from the earlier AA-5. Grumman sold its light aircraft division to

Gulfstream Aerospace Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation is an American aircraft company and a wholly owned subsidiary of General Dynamics. Gulfstream designs, develops, manufactures, markets, and services business jet aircraft. Gulfstream has produced more than 2,000 ...

in 1978 and the division was renamed Gulfstream American. Gulfstream continued production of the AA-5A until 1979. A total of 900 Cheetahs were produced.

AA-5B Tiger

The final variant of the AA-5 line was the AA-5B Tiger. The Tiger was designed by Grumman engineers and was first produced in late 1974 as the 1975 model. The Tiger was the outcome of the same redesign work on the AA-5 Traveler that resulted in the Cheetah and it was originally little more than the same aircraft with a Lycoming O-360-A4K engine, resulting in a cruise speed. Gross weight was increased from the AA-5/AA-5A's to on the Tiger. Externally the Tiger looked much like the AA-5 Traveler and AA-5A Cheetah so once again Grumman's marketing department came up with a distinctive decal package to differentiate the design – this time a "galloping tiger". While the earlier AA-1s and AA-5s did not change much from year to year the AA-5B Tiger underwent almost continual improvement. As with the AA-5A, the AA-5B was continued in production by Gulfstream when they purchased Grumman's American division. Gulfstream ceased production of all piston-engined aircraft in 1979 and the highly successful Tiger design went out of production after 1323 aircraft had been delivered.

AG-5B Tiger

For eleven years the design was not produced and then in the late 1980s a new company was formed to produce the Tiger. American General Aviation Corporation carried out further design improvements including introducing a new split nose cowling (engine cover) that could be removed without removing the propeller, a new instrument panel, improved exterior lighting, a new fuel quantity indication system, a 28 volt electrical system replacing the older 14 volt system, a new-style throttle quadrant, and improvements to the heat and ventilation systems. Aerodynamic improvements raised the optimal altitude cruise speed from true airspeed to TAS. The redesigned aircraft was put into production under an amended type certificate as the American General AG-5B Tiger. The new company had considered producing AA-1s and AA-5A Cheetahs, but those plans were never fulfilled before it closed its doors in 1993. American General produced Tigers for model years 1990–93 and delivered 181 aircraft in that time. The design has a strong following among pilots and aircraft owners and so, in 1999, a new company was formed to put the Tiger back into production.

Tiger Aircraft Tiger Aircraft LLC was an American aircraft manufacturer from 1999 to 2006 based in Martinsburg, West Virginia, United States. History The company was established in 1999 with the aim of returning the AG-5B Tiger to production. Tiger Aircraft fo ...

started production of the AG-5B Tiger in 2001 at their plant in

Martinsburg, West Virginia Martinsburg is a city in and the seat of Berkeley County, West Virginia, in the tip of the state's Eastern Panhandle region in the lower Shenandoah Valley. Its population was 18,835 in the 2021 census estimate, making it the largest city in the E ...

. Tiger Aircraft did not produce any other models of the AA-1 or AA-5 family, although they owned the type certificates for the complete line of aircraft. Between 2001 and 2006 Tiger Aircraft produced 51 AG-5Bs. By the middle of 2006 Tiger Aircraft was experiencing financial problems and production of AG-5Bs had been halted and production workers laid off. Tiger Aircraft filed for bankruptcy in January 2007. On August 2, 2007, the Federal Bankruptcy Court approved the sale of Tiger Aircraft assets to True Flight Holdings LLC. True Flight has indicated its intention to produce parts and also return the AG-5B Tiger to production as soon as possible at a planned facility on a lot at the

Valdosta, Georgia Valdosta is a city in and the county seat of Lowndes County, Georgia, United States. As of 2019, Valdosta had an estimated population of 56,457. Valdosta is the principal city of the Valdosta Metropolitan Statistical Area, which in 2021 had ...

, Airport, but as of 2021 had not produced any complete aircraft.

AA-5 & AG-5 production

All told, 3,289 AA-5s and AG-5s were produced by the five manufacturers between 1971 and 2005.

Design

All models of the AA-5 have four seats under a sliding

canopy Canopy may refer to: Plants * Canopy (biology), aboveground portion of plant community or crop (including forests) * Canopy (grape), aboveground portion of grapes Religion and ceremonies * Baldachin or canopy of state, typically placed over an ...

, which can be partly opened in flight for ventilation. Entry for all four occupants is from the

wing root The wing root is the part of the wing on a fixed-wing aircraft or winged-spaceship that is closest to the fuselage The fuselage (; from the French ''fuselé'' "spindle-shaped") is an aircraft's main body section. It holds crew, passengers, o ...

over the canopy sill. Compared to competitive aircraft of the same era the AA-5s are noted for their light and pleasant handling characteristics as well as high cruising speed for the installed power. As derivatives of the original AA-1 Yankee, the AA-5 series share the same unique bonded

aluminum Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. It ha ...

wing A wing is a type of fin that produces lift while moving through air or some other fluid. Accordingly, wings have streamlined cross-sections that are subject to aerodynamic forces and act as airfoils. A wing's aerodynamic efficiency is e ...

and

honeycomb A honeycomb is a mass of hexagonal prismatic wax cells built by honey bees in their nests to contain their larvae and stores of honey and pollen. Beekeepers may remove the entire honeycomb to harvest honey. Honey bees consume about of honey ...

fuselage The fuselage (; from the French ''fuselé'' "spindle-shaped") is an aircraft's main body section. It holds crew, passengers, or cargo. In single-engine aircraft, it will usually contain an engine as well, although in some amphibious aircraf ...

that eliminates the need for

rivet A rivet is a permanent mechanical fastener. Before being installed, a rivet consists of a smooth cylindrical shaft with a head on one end. The end opposite to the head is called the ''tail''. On installation, the rivet is placed in a punched ...

s without sacrificing strength. The main landing gear is

fibreglass Fiberglass (American English) or fibreglass (Commonwealth English) is a common type of fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened into a sheet called a chopped strand mat, or woven into glass clo ...

with a spring-steel nose gear tube. There is no nosewheel steering as the nosewheel is free-castering through 180 degrees. Steering is by main wheel differential braking operated by using one's toes to push the tops of the rudder pedals. The wings have dihedral to improve lateral stability.

Modifications

In 2019,

Garmin Garmin Ltd. (shortened to Garmin, stylized as GARMIN, and formerly known as ProNav) is an American, Swiss-domiciled multinational technology company founded in 1989 by Gary Burrell and Min Kao in Lenexa, Kansas, United States, with headquarte ...

received a Supplemental Type Certificate for a full G3X Touch glass cockpit installation for the aircraft.

Variants

;AA-5 Traveler :1971 four-seat version of the AA-1 with a Lycoming O-320-E2G engine, 821 built. ;AA-5A Cheetah :1975 variant with larger fin fillet and no ventral fin fairing, redesigned engine cowling, and longer rear windows, 900 built. ;AA-5B Tiger :1974 variant with a Lycoming O-360-A4K engine and increased takeoff weight, 1323 built. ;AA-5C :One prototype only. ;AG-5B Tiger :1990 variant of the AA-5B produced by American General Aviation Corporation and

Specifications (2005 model Tiger Aircraft AG-5B Tiger)

References

Aviation Consumer Used Airplane Guide 1989 Article – ''Gulfstream Tiger/Cheetah AA-5B/A''

A16EA Type Certificate

External links

Former location of Tiger Aircraft LLC website

Tiger Aircraft website archives
on

Archive.org The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

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