The Grumman G-73 Mallard is a medium, twin-engined

amphibious aircraft An amphibious aircraft, or amphibian, is an aircraft that can Takeoff, take off and Landing, land on both solid ground and water. These aircraft are typically Fixed-wing aircraft, fixed-wing, though Amphibious helicopter, amphibious helicopte ...

. Many have been modified by replacing the original Pratt & Whitney Wasp H radial engines with modern

turboprop engine A turboprop is a gas turbine engine that drives an aircraft propeller. A turboprop consists of an intake, reduction gearbox, compressor, combustor, turbine, and a propelling nozzle. Air enters the intake and is compressed by the compressor. F ...

s. Manufactured from 1946 to 1951, production ended when Grumman's larger

SA-16 Albatross The Grumman HU-16 Albatross is a large, twin-radial engined amphibious aircraft, amphibious flying boat that was used by the United States Air Force (USAF), the U.S. Navy (USN), the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG), and the Royal Canadian Air Force primar ...

was introduced.

Design and development

Building on the success of the

Goose A goose (: geese) is a bird of any of several waterfowl species in the family Anatidae. This group comprises the genera '' Anser'' (grey geese and white geese) and '' Branta'' (black geese). Some members of the Tadorninae subfamily (e.g., Egy ...

and Widgeon, Grumman Aircraft developed larger G-73 Mallard for commercial use. Retaining many of the features of the smaller aircraft, such as twin radial engines, high wings with underwing floats, retractable landing gear and a large straight tail, the company built 59 Mallards between 1946 and 1951. Unlike the smaller aircraft, the Mallard featured

tricycle gear Tricycle gear is a type of aircraft undercarriage, or ''landing gear'', that is arranged in a tricycle fashion. The tricycle arrangement has one or more nose wheels in a single front undercarriage and two or more main wheels slightly aft of th ...

, stressed skin, a two-step hull and wingtip fuel tanks.

Operational history

Grumman G-73 Ward Wells collection AMHA US-Gov

The Mallard prototype first flew on 30 April 1946, with the first production aircraft entering service in September of that year. While the Mallard was designed for regional airline operations with two pilots and ten passengers, especially aimed at harbor-based, city-to-city hops on the eastern seaboard, postwar surplus aircraft sales and the availability of smaller airports limited market potential. A number of smaller air carriers did use the Mallard in its intended role, notably Tahiti-Hawaii Airlines and

Pacific Western Airlines Pacific Western Airlines (PWA) was an airline that operated scheduled flights throughout western Canada and charter services around the world from the 1950s through the 1980s. In 1987, PWA purchased Canadian Pacific Air Lines, and the merged a ...

(Canada). However, most of the 59 Mallards delivered were for corporate use. A prominent user in the United States was Roy Fruehauf and the

Fruehauf Trailer Corporation Fruehauf Trailer Corporation, previously Fruehauf Trailer Company (1918–1963) and Fruehauf Corporation (1963–1989), was an American company engaged in the manufacture and sale of truck Semi-trailer, trailers, and other machinery and equipment ...

. Fruehauf owned and operated a fishing camp, Killarney Lodge at

Georgian Bay The Georgian Bay () is a large bay of Lake Huron, in the Laurentia bioregion. It is located entirely within the borders of Ontario, Canada. The main body of the bay lies east of the Bruce Peninsula and Manitoulin Island. To its northwest is t ...

, Canada, and ferried customers there from Detroit. Another Detroiter, William Packer of General Motors, also owned a Mallard, which he often flew to Killarney. another Mallard was purchased in the early 1950s by the

Aga Khan Aga Khan (; ; also transliterated as ''Aqa Khan'' and ''Agha Khan'') is a title held by the Imamate in Nizari doctrine, Imām of the Nizari Isma'ilism, Nizari Isma'ilism, Ismāʿīli Shia Islam, Shias. The current holder of the title is the ...

. The Toronto Globe & Mail newspaper owned one for use as a "flying newsroom". The Royal Egyptian Air Force used a Mallard as part of their Royal Flight; it was reportedly

King Farouk Farouk I (; ''Fārūq al-Awwal''; 11 February 1920 – 18 March 1965) was the tenth ruler of Egypt from the Muhammad Ali dynasty and the penultimate King of Egypt and the Sudan, succeeding his father, Fuad I, in 1936 and reigning until his ...

's favourite aircraft. The Mallard received a new lease of life in the 1970s when a number of airframes were refitted by

Frakes Aviation __NOTOC__ Frakes Aviation was founded by J. Fred Frakes in the late 1960s, and is located in Cleburne, Texas, United States. When founded, the company's main activity was converting radial engine powered airplanes to gas turbine engines. The compa ...

with

Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A The Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6 is a turboprop aircraft engine produced by Pratt & Whitney Canada. Its design was started in 1958, it first ran in February 1960, first flew on 30 May 1961, entered service in 1964, and has been continuously upd ...

turbines and upgraded for 17 passengers, to become "Turbo Mallards". Today, through attrition, only 32 Mallards remain registered in the United States. Many of the rest are in use around the globe. A similar program has been undertaken by Paspaley Pearling in combination with

Aeronautical Engineers Australia Aeronautical Engineers Australia (AEA) is an Australian aeronautical engineering consultancy and aircraft technical service provider. It is the largest civil aircraft design organisation in the Asia–Pacific, Asia Pacific region and is now head ...

to fit new engines and modernize its Mallard fleet, which is used to support its pearling operations in Northern Australia. The fleet has been extensively rebuilt and also refitted with PT6A turbines, and is currently undergoing a life extension program.

Incidents

Chalk's flight 101 in 2005

Chalk's Ocean Airways Chalk's International Airlines, formerly Chalk's Ocean Airways, was an airline with its headquarters on the grounds of Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport in unincorporated Broward County, Florida near Fort Lauderdale. It operated sc ...

purchased Mallard N1208 from the

Fruehauf Corporation Fruehauf Trailer Corporation, previously Fruehauf Trailer Company (1918–1963) and Fruehauf Corporation (1963–1989), was an American company engaged in the manufacture and sale of truck trailers, and other machinery and equipment, with headqu ...

and later acquired several other examples of the aircraft. The type received much attention after a Turbo Mallard, operating as Chalk's Ocean Airways Flight 101, crashed after takeoff from

Miami Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...

Harbor on December 19, 2005, bound for Bimini, Bahamas. Eighteen

passenger A passenger is a person who travels in a vehicle, but does not bear any responsibility for the tasks required for that vehicle to arrive at its destination or otherwise operate the vehicle, and is not a steward. The vehicles may be bicycles, ...

s and two

crew A crew is a body or a group of people who work at a common activity, generally in a structured or hierarchy, hierarchical organization. A location in which a crew works is called a crewyard or a workyard. The word has nautical resonances: the ta ...

perished when the right wing separated from the

fuselage The fuselage (; from the French language, French ''fuselé'' "spindle-shaped") is an aircraft's main body section. It holds Aircrew, crew, passengers, or cargo. In single-engine aircraft, it will usually contain an Aircraft engine, engine as wel ...

of the 58-year-old aircraft. The cause of the accident was determined by the subsequent investigation to be undetected cracks and/or

corrosion Corrosion is a natural process that converts a refined metal into a more chemically stable oxide. It is the gradual deterioration of materials (usually a metal) by chemical or electrochemical reaction with their environment. Corrosion engine ...

in the

wing A wing is a type of fin that produces both Lift (force), lift and drag while moving through air. Wings are defined by two shape characteristics, an airfoil section and a planform (aeronautics), planform. Wing efficiency is expressed as lift-to-d ...

spar. Prior to 2005, Chalk's Ocean Airways had an exemplary safety record operating Mallards for many years between

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

and the

Bahamas The Bahamas, officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an archipelagic and island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the Atlantic Ocean. It contains 97 per cent of the archipelago's land area and 88 per cent of its population. ...

, having never had a passenger fatality since the

company A company, abbreviated as co., is a Legal personality, legal entity representing an association of legal people, whether Natural person, natural, Juridical person, juridical or a mixture of both, with a specific objective. Company members ...

began operations in 1917.

Australia Day 2017 at Perth

An original radial-engine Mallard, registration VH-CQA, crashed into the Swan River in

Perth, Western Australia Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

, on 26 January, 2017, during

Australia Day Australia Day is the official national day of Australia. Observed annually on 26 January, it marks the 1788 landing of the First Fleet and raising of the Flag of Great Britain, Union Flag of Great Britain by Arthur Phillip at Sydney Cove, a ...

celebrations, killing both the

pilot An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its Aircraft flight control system, directional flight controls. Some other aircrew, aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are al ...

, Peter Lynch, and his passenger. The cause of the accident was listed as pilot error and poor procedures on the part of the CASA and the City of Perth.

Operators

Civil operators

; * Air Whitsunday (''operated both the piston engine and turboprop engine variants'') * Pearl Aviation (Paspaley Pearling Co.) *

Trans Australia Airlines Trans Australia Airlines (TAA), renamed Australian Airlines in 1986, was one of the two major Australian domestic airlines between its inception in 1946 and its merger with Qantas in September 1992. As a result of the "COBRA" (or Common Bran ...

; *

Nordair Nordair was a Quebec-based airline in Canada founded in 1947 from the merger of Boreal Airways and Mont Laurier Aviation. History The airline operated from the 1940s to the 1980s. Initially, most of its business was international and transatlan ...

(Turbo Mallard) *

;

Netherlands New Guinea Dutch New Guinea or Netherlands New Guinea (, ) was the Western New Guinea, western half of the island of New Guinea that was a part of the Dutch East Indies until 1949, later an overseas administrative territorial entity, overseas territory of ...

* ''Nederlandsche Nieuw Guinee Petroleum Maatschappij'' ; * Antilles Air Boats *

(''operated both the piston engine and turboprop engine variants'') * Virgin Islands Seaplane Shuttle (''operated both the piston engine and turboprop engine variants'')

Military operators

; *

Royal Egyptian Air Force The Egyptian Air Force (EAF) () is the Air force, aviation branch of the Egyptian Armed Forces that is responsible for all airborne defence missions and operates all military aircraft, including those used in support of the Egyptian Army, Egypti ...

Specifications (G-73)

Grumman G-73 Mallard 3-view line drawing

References

;Notes ;Bibliography * * * Hotson, Fred W. and Matthew E. Rodina. ''Grumman Mallard: The Enduring Classic''. Scarborough, Ontario: Robin Brass Studio, 2006. . * Thruelsen, Richard. ''The Grumman Story''. New York: Praeger Publishers, Inc., 1976. . * Winchester, Jim, ed. "Grumman Goose/Mallard." ''Biplanes, Triplanes and Seaplanes (The Aviation Factfile)''. Rochester, Kent, UK: Grange Books plc, 2004. .

External links

"Grumman Hatches A Mallard", November 1946, Popular Science

''Aircraft Maintenance Technology'' article about Chalk's accident

NTSB preliminary report on Chalk's accident DCA06MA010 of 19 December 2005

Picture of CF-HPU Pacific Western Airlines operated Mallard in Tahsis, BC in late 1950s

History of Chalk's Ocean Airways at answers.com

{{Authority control

Mallard The mallard () or wild duck (''Anas platyrhynchos'') is a dabbling duck that breeds throughout the temperate and subtropical Americas, Eurasia, and North Africa. It has been introduced to New Zealand, Australia, Peru, Brazil, Uruguay, Arge ...

1940s United States civil utility aircraft Flying boats Amphibious aircraft High-wing aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1946 Twin piston-engined tractor aircraft Aircraft with retractable tricycle landing gear