American Eagle Eaglet Model 230
« AIRCRAFTThe $1000 plane
Douglas Webber and Noel Hockaday intended the Eaglet to be a "thousand-dollar" airplane for everyman. The prototype utilized a 25-horsepower Cleone two-stroke engine. Flown in June 1930, the prototype crash-landed and was refitted with a 30-horsepower Szekley three-cylinder radial. The powerplant change became the Model 230. Later models received a 45-hp Szekely or, as in the case of the Model 231, a 40-hp Salmson. A total of 90 Eaglets were built by American Eagle. It became the basis of several later aircraft: the Rearwin Junior, Porterfield Flyabout, Eaglecraft A-31.
Notable on the Model 230 are the flying wires attached to the engine jugs. The three-cylinder Szekley engine had a tendancy to vibrate in flight, and the wires dampened the vibration and helped control another pesky Szekley problem, blown cylinder heads. The 1935 Eaglet bears little resemblance to the late 1970s homebuilt from AmEagle which carries the same name. They share a similar concept -- small-engined monowings for the sport aviator. The AmEagle kit was a shoulder-winged sailplane powered by a 12-hp McCulloch 101B two-stroke engine.
The American Eagle Eaglet displayed by the AAM is on loan from the Airpower Museum in Blakesburg, Iowa.
