science

Stout Skycar

Stout Skycar is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Stout Skycar rather than just read about it. In short: The Stout Skycar is a series of four one-off American light aircraft of the 1930s. Development William Bushnell Stout was a prolific designer of road vehicles and aircraft, including the Ford Trimotor series.

Key takeaways

Stout Skycar belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Stout Skycar to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Stout Skycar from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Stout Skycar is a series of four one-off American light aircraft of the 1930s.

Development William Bushnell Stout was a prolific designer of road vehicles and aircraft, including the Ford Trimotor series. He was founder of the Stout Metal Airplane Division of the Ford Motor Company and in 1931 designed the Skycar which was specified for easy handling and provided with automobile-style comfort. Single examples of four variations on the basic design were produced between 1931 and 1944. The Skycar I was first displayed at the spring 1931 Detroit Show. The aircraft was a two-seat high-wing monoplane, accommodating the occupants in tandem layout. It had an all-metal steel-tube frame covered with corrugated metal skin. Centre-line nose and tail-wheels plus a standard landing gear were fitted. The rear fuselage was constructed from an open framework carrying a single fin and rudder, inside which was located the rear pusher engine. The Sky Car was displayed with a Moorhouse engine (Alfred Moorhouse of Detroit, assignor to Packard Motor Car Company). Fuel was carried in two tanks in the leading portion of the central section of the engine housing, from where it was fed by gravity to the engine. At a later date the aircraft was fitted with twin booms carrying the single fin and rudder (see photo of preserved aircraft). The aircraft featured balanced pivoting outboard wingtips rather than ailerons. Stout attempted to design a simple aircraft that would have controls similar to early model Fords including the ignition switch and the starter button. Stout planned to build the Sky Car (i.e. its original name was "Sky Car" but various newspaper and magazine articles spelled it "Skycar") and sell it at the price of a moderately priced car (approximately $2000) if mass-produced in numbers. The Skycar II of 1941 was a higher-powered version utilising stainless steel construction and twin tail booms. The four-wheel landing gear was intended to facilitate a later rebuild to roadability which never occurred. It was built with support from Fred Fisher of General Motors. The Skycar III of 1943 had a higher-powered Lycoming engine to enable operation at higher gross weight, but was otherwise similar to the Skycar II. The Skycar IV of 1944 was also known as the Spratt-Stout Model 8 and the Convair 103. It was similar to the Skycar III with twin tail-booms, but fitted with twin fins and rudders.

Operational history The Skycar I, sometimes referred to as the Model 11-W. It was flown as a personal aircraft by Stout for several years and was later donated to the Smithsonian Institution. It is on display in the National Air and Space Museum at Dulles Airport Virginia. The Skycar II was evaluated by the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) as the XC-65 light transport. It was destroyed in a hangar fire circa 1942. The Skycar III was tested by the USAAF as the XC-107.

Variants

Data from:-Aerofiles: Stout

Skycar I 75 hp (56 kW) Michigan Rover R-267 pusher engine, later 90 hp (67 kW) Warner Junior. (1 built) Skycar II 90 hp (67 kW) Franklin O-200 pusher engine. Gross weight 1550 lbs. (1 built) Skycar III 125 hp (93 kW) Lycoming O-290 pusher engine. Gross weight 1825 lbs. (1 built) Skycar IV 90 hp (67 kW) Franklin 4ACG pusher engine, later 125 hp (93 kW) Lycoming O-290C. (1 built) Weick W1 Fred Weick of NACA, with permission, built his own aircraft based roughly on the Skycar for safety and control tests. The tested features were later applied to his ERCO Ercoupe design.

Specifications (Skycar I) Data from Jane's all the World's Aircraft 1931, Aerofiles: StoutGeneral characteristics Crew: 2 Length: 23 ft 11 in (7.3 m) Wingspan: 43 ft 0 in (13.1 m) Wing area: 188.5 sq ft (17.51 m2) Empty weight: 950 lb (431 kg) Gross weight: 1,425 lb (646 kg) Powerplant: 1 × Michigan Rover R-267 4-cylinder in-line air-cooled piston engine, 75 hp (56 kW) Propellers: 2-bladed wooden fixed-pitch pusher propeller Performance

Maximum speed: 95 mph (153 km/h, 83 kn) Cruise speed: 80 mph (130 km/h, 70 kn) Stall speed: 35 mph (56 km/h, 30 kn) Range: 320 mi (510 km, 280 nmi) Wing loading: 7.6 lb/sq ft (37 kg/m2) Power/mass: 19 lb/hp (12 kg/kW)

References

Notes

Bibliography

External links

Aerofiles data and photos of the Skycars

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Stout Skycar

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Stout Skycar claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Stout Skycar before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Stout Skycar ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Stout Skycar

In research: Stout Skycar appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Stout Skycar in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Stout Skycar is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1930s United States civil utility aircraft, Aircraft first flown in 1931, Aircraft with fixed tricycle landing gear, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Stout Skycar outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Stout Skycar in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Stout Skycar means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Stout Skycar out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Stout Skycar in simple terms?

The Stout Skycar is a series of four one-off American light aircraft of the 1930s. Development William Bushnell Stout was a prolific designer of road vehicles and aircraft, including the Ford Trimotor series.

Why does Stout Skycar matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Stout Skycar?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Stout Skycar.