The Kinner C-7 Envoy was an American four-seat cabin monoplane built by
Kinner Airplane & Motor Corporation
Kinner Airplane & Motor Corp was an airplane and engine manufacturer, founded, in the mid-1920s, in Glendale, California, United States, by Bert Kinner, the manager of Kinner Field. Kinner's chief engineer was Max B. Harlow who later founded the ...
in the 1930s.
Design and development
The Envoy was a four-seat version of the
Sportwing. It had low wings fitted with wire bracing from fuselage points just below the cabin windows. The
conventional, fixed tailwheel undercarriage was fitted with streamlined spats on the main gear. The low-set tailplane was braced by wires from the middle of the fin.
Four civil examples were completed from 1934. These were fitted with a 300 h.p. Kinner C-7 engine and were sold to civil pilot owners. The civil aircraft were followed in 1936 by three aircraft for the
United States Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...
(USN) for use in communications work and designated XRK-1. The USN machines served until the early years of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
. The
Imperial Japanese Navy
The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN; Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ' 'Navy of the Greater Japanese Empire', or ''Nippon Kaigun'', 'Japanese Navy') was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945, when it was dissolved following Japan's surrender ...
evaluated a single example as the LXK.
When they were delivered the USN examples were fitted with a 340 h.p. Kinner R-1044-2 engine, but one example used for VIP transport was later fitted with a 400 h.p.
Pratt & Whitney R-985
The Pratt & Whitney R-985 Wasp Junior is a series of nine-cylinder, air-cooled, radial aircraft engines built by the Pratt & Whitney Aircraft Company from the 1930s to the 1950s. These engines have a displacement of ; initial versions produce ...
-38 radial engine.
The C-7 was the last of Kinner's production models.
[Aerofiles]
Operators
;
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United States Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...
Specifications (XRK-1)
Sources : Swanborough, 1990, p. 502 and Aerofiles
See also
References
;Notes
;Bibliography
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External links
Aerofiles information and three images of the Envoy series
{{Japanese Navy short aircraft designations
1930s United States civil utility aircraft
1930s United States military utility aircraft
Low-wing aircraft
Single-engined tractor aircraft
Aircraft first flown in 1934