The Porterfield Collegiate is an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...

-built two-seat

training Training is teaching, or developing in oneself or others, any skills and knowledge or fitness that relate to specific useful competencies. Training has specific goals of improving one's capability, capacity, productivity and performance. I ...

and touring

monoplane A monoplane is a fixed-wing aircraft configuration with a single mainplane, in contrast to a biplane or other types of multiplanes, which have multiple wings. A monoplane has inherently the highest efficiency and lowest drag of any wing con ...

built by the Porterfield Aircraft Corporation of

Kansas City The Kansas City metropolitan area is a bi-state metropolitan area anchored by Kansas City, Missouri. Its 14 counties straddle the border between the U.S. states of Missouri (9 counties) and Kansas (5 counties). With and a population of more t ...

Design

Developed originally as the Porterfield Zephyr, under Approved Type Certificate (ATC) 2-530,"Porterfield"
Aerofiles.com, retrieved September 5, 2017 it is a light-weight version of the earlier Model 35 Flyabout for use as a pilot trainer. Powered by a 40 hp (30 kW)

Continental A-40 The Continental A40 engine is a carbureted four-cylinder, horizontally opposed, air-cooled aircraft engine that was developed especially for use in light aircraft by Continental Motors. It was produced between 1931 and 1941. Design and develop ...

engine it was later re-designated the Porterfield CP-40. Though roughly in the same general class with the tandem-seat

Piper Cub The Piper J-3 Cub is an American light aircraft that was built between 1938 and 1947 by Piper Aircraft. The aircraft has a simple, lightweight design which gives it good low-speed handling properties and short-field performance. The Cub is P ...

Aeronca Champ The Aeronca Model 7 Champion, commonly known as the "Champ", or "Airknocker",Bellanca Aircraft Corp, " d: "The Champ only $4,995"" ''Flying Annual & Pilots' Guide,'' 1971 ed., pp.36–37 iff-Davis NY is a single-engine light airplane ...

, and

Interstate Cadet The Interstate Cadet is an American two-seat tandem, high wing, single-engine monoplane light aircraft. Around 320 of these aircraft were produced between the years 1941 and 1942 by the Interstate Aircraft and Engineering Corporation based in El S ...

-- and the side-by-side seating Aeronca Chief, Taylorcraft BC-12D and

Luscombe 8 The Luscombe 8 is a series of high-wing, side-by-side-seating monoplanes with conventional landing gear, designed in 1937 and built by Luscombe Aircraft. Development The XT8E was developed in 1947 to compete for an U.S. Air Force contract, ...

-- the tandem-seat Porterfield is visually distinguishable from them by its twin parallel wing struts on each side (compared to the V-shaped struts on the other planes), and by its largely symmetrical airfoil wing (similar curvature top and bottom).

Development

To improve performance, under ATC 690, the engine was replaced with a 50 hp (47 kW) Continental A50-4 engine and re-designated the CP-50 Collegiate. It is a braced high-wing monoplane with a tail skid fixed landing gear. The two bracing struts run in parallel from the bottom of the fuselage and the tailplane was fixed to the top of the rear fuselage. Due to the narrowness of the fuselage, particularly to the rear of the cabin, the type is nicknamed "Skinny Bird". In 1940, under ATC 720, the power was again upped to the popular 65-horsepower

Continental A-65 The Continental O-170 engine is the collective military designation for a family of small aircraft engines, known under the company designation of A50, A65, A75 and A80. The line was designed and built by Continental Motors commencing in the 19 ...

, pushing cruise to 100 mph, with a 500-pound useful load permitting a 300-statute-mile range. A number of variants were produced with different engine installations, resulting in a series of model designations. Roughly concurrently with the development of the Continental-powered CP-series, Porterfield also developed variants (under the same ATCs) to accommodate comparable Lycoming engines (LP-50, LP-55 and LP-65 -- over 400 built, in all) and the less-popular Franklin engines (FP-60 and FP-65).

Production and operations

Total production had reached 476 when production ceased in 1942 at the start of American involvement in the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

.Simpson, p.442 Many used in the U.S.

Civilian Pilot Training Program The Civilian Pilot Training Program (CPTP) was a flight training program (1938–1944) sponsored by the United States government with the stated purpose of increasing the number of civilian pilots, though having a clear impact on military prepare ...

to prepare civilians to become military aviators for the emerging threat of war. Over 100 Porterfields remained active with private pilot owners in the United States and other countries in 2001. In 2014 two Collegiates were active in Europe, G-AFZL a 1939 CP-65 in U.K and F-AYRJ (ex-G-BVWY) a 1940 CP-65 in France. Others airworthy outside the United States include examples in Canada, Mexico and Argentina. An owners club exists to support the ongoing operation of the type, of which around 40 of all varieties are active.

Variants

;CP-40 Zephyr :Original

Continental A40 The Continental A40 engine is a carbureted four-cylinder, horizontally opposed, air-cooled aircraft engine that was developed especially for use in light aircraft by Continental Motors. It was produced between 1931 and 1941. Design and develop ...

powered version ;CP-50 :Improved production variant with a 50hp (47kW) Continental A50-4 engine ;CP-55 :Revised engine cowling ;CP-65 :Powered by a 65hp (48kW)

Continental A65-8 The Continental O-170 engine is the collective military designation for a family of small aircraft engines, known under the company designation of A50, A65, A75 and A80. The line was designed and built by Continental Motors commencing in the 19 ...

or -9 engine. ;FP-60 :Powered by a 60hp (45kW) Franklin 4AC-171-A1 engine. ;FP-65 :Powered by a 65hp (48kW) Franklin 4AC-176-B29 engine. ;LP-50 :Powered by a 50hp (37kW) Lycoming O-145-A1 engine. ;LP-55 :Powered by a 55hp (41kW) Lycoming O-145-A3 engine. ;LP-65 :Powered by a 65hp (48kW) Lycoming O-145-B1 or B2 engine.

Specifications (CP-65)

Gallery

Porterfield CP 50 Collegiate G-AFZL.jpg Porterfield CP-65 Collegiate -FRJ.JPG Vue de façe Porterfield CP-65.JPG Logo original Porterfield Turner.JPG Porterfield CP-65 Instruments Panel.JPG Plaque constructeur Porterfield.JPG

References

* Simpson, R.W, Airlife's World Aircraft, 2001, Airlife Publishing Ltd, * The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Aircraft (Part Work 1982-1985), 1985, Orbis Publishing, Page 2760

External links

{{commons category, Porterfield Collegiate
Description and images of Porterfield modelsPorterfield Turner Aircraft Blog
1930s United States civil trainer aircraft High-wing aircraft Single-engined tractor aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1936 Aircraft with fixed conventional landing gear