Fairchild 91

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Model 91, A-942
Type	Flying boat airliner
Manufacturer	Fairchild
Designed by	Alfred Gassner
Maiden flight	5 April 1935
Primary user	Pan Am
Number built	7

The Fairchild 91, later redesignated A-942, was a small flying boat airliner developed in the United states in the mid-1930s. Fairchild designed the aircraft in response to a Pan Am request for a small flying boat to operate on their river routes along the Amazon and Yangtze. The result was a conventional high-wing cantilever monoplane with its radial engine mounted above the wing in a streamlined nacelle. Before construction of the prototype was complete, however, Pan Am no longer required the aircraft to operate in China, and Fairchild modified the design to optimise it for the tropical conditions of Brazil.

After the first two aircraft were delivered, Pan Am cancelled the remaining four aircraft on its order, discovering that the two aircraft they had already purchased were capable of handling their entire Amazon River demand; the Model 91 had become a victim of its own success. Fairchild completed the other four airframes under the designation A-942, selling two to private owners, and exporting the other two to Japan. One of the private owners was naturalist Richard Archbold, who used it on his second expedition to New Guinea in 1936-37. The prototype was sold to the Spanish Republican Air Force, but was captured by the Spanish Nationalists and was used by them until 1938. One of the privately-owned A-942s served with the RAF in Egypt for a time.

[edit] Specifications (A-942-A)

General characteristics

• Crew: Two pilots
• Capacity: 8 passengers
• Length: 42 ft 8 in (13.00 m)
• Wingspan: 56 ft 0 in (17.07 m)
• Height: 14 ft 8 in (4.47 m)
• Wing area: 483 ft² (44.9 m²)
• Empty weight: 6,596 lb (2,992 kg)
• Gross weight: 10,500 lb (4,763 kg)
• Powerplant: 1 × Pratt & Whitney R-1690, 800 hp (600 kW)

Performance

• Maximum speed: 167 mph (269 km/h)
• Range: 665 miles (1,070 km)
• Service ceiling: 15,600 ft (4,755 m)
• Rate of climb: 840 ft/min (4.3 m/s)

[edit] References

• Taylor, Michael J. H. (1989). Jane's Encyclopedia of Aviation. London: Studio Editions, 354. 
• World Aircraft Information Files. London: Bright Star Publishing, File 894 Sheet 04. 

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