Aero Commander 500 family
The Aero Commander 500 is a light twin-engine propeller plane, the end of the 1940s was developed by the Aero Design and Engineering Company. The company was acquired by Rockwell in 1958. 1967, the model was renamed the Shrike Commander.
History
The idea for this aircraft was developed by two employees of Douglas Aircraft Company in 1944 founded her own company in order to realize the model. The engineers designed an all-metal aircraft, which was designed as a high-wing monoplane and had a retractable tricycle landing gear. The plane had room for five people and was powered by two piston engines.
The first prototype flew on 23 April 1948, the designation L3085. In the following 37 years, originated twenty-nine versions, starting from the Aero Commander 520 Some variants were Turboprop and were then called Turbo Commander or Jetprop Commander, the last models reported in the fuselage stretch up to eleven seats, partly they had a pressurized cabin. After about two thousand aircraft production in 1985 has been set.
Variants
Use
The military use versions received in the system used until 1962 by the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Army initially the designation L- 26th In the current 1962 common designation system for aircraft of the U.S. armed forces, the former USAF aircraft were then referred to as U-4 and the former U.S. Army machines as U -9.
An L- 26C was Dwight Eisenhower from 1956 to 1960 as President of the machine, making it the smallest Air Force One. She was also the first with the typical blue and white paint job. Even the Prime Minister of Australia used occasionally this type of aircraft.
Military user
- Air force
- Marine
- Air force
- Army
- Air force
- Army
- Marine
- Air force
- Marine
- Air force
- Royal Thai Air Force
- Royal Thai Army
- United States Air Force
- United States Army
- United States Coast Guard
- Air force
Civilian users
- United States Customs Service
- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration