Commonwealth Skyranger
type of aircraft
The Commonwealth Skyranger, first produced as the Rearwin Skyranger, was the last design of Rearwin Aircraft before the company was purchased by a new owner and renamed Commonwealth Aircraft. It was a side-by-side, two-seat, high-wing taildragger.
Development
The Rearwin company had specialized in aircraft powered by small radial engines, such as their Sportster and Cloudster, and had even purchased the assets of LeBlond Engines to make small radial engines in-house in 1937. By 1940, however, it was clear Rearwin would need a design powered by a small horizontally opposed engine to remain competitive. Intended for sport pilots and flying businessmen, the "Rearwin Model 165" first flew on April 9, 1940. Originally named the "Ranger," Ranger Engines (who also sold several engines named "Ranger") protested, and Rearwin renamed the design "Skyranger." The overall design and construction methods allowed Rearwin to take orders for Skyrangers then deliver the aircraft within 10 weeks.
The Skyranger's development in 1940 came shortly before the U.S. entered World War II. At that time, the U.S. government was purchasing almost any airplane in the two-seat, 50-90 horsepower class as training aircraft for the Civilian Pilot Training Program ("CPT Program" or "CPTP"), intended to develop tens of thousands of pilots for the possibility of U.S. involvement in the war. However, unlike its contemporaries heavily used in the CPTP such as the Piper Cub, Taylorcraft, Interstate Cadet, and Porterfield Collegiate, the Skyranger was rejected by the government for CPTP use as too challenging to fly.
By 1942, Rearwin had produced only 82 Skyrangers (compared to hundreds or thousands of its competitors' planes) when World War II forced production to halt.
In 1945 Commonwealth Aircraft re-established production of the Skyranger.
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This entry incorporates text from “Commonwealth Skyranger” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.