Piper PA-15 Vagabond
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The Piper PA-15 Vagabond and PA-17 Vagabond are both two-seat, high-wing, conventional gear light aircraft that were designed for personal use and for flight training and built by Piper Aircraft starting in 1948.<ref name="PlaneAndPilot"/><ref name="Foster">Montgomery, MR and Gerald Foster,: A Field Guide to Airplanes - Second Edition, page 72. Houghton Mifflin Company, 1992. Template:ISBN</ref>
Development
The PA-15 was the first post-World War II Piper aircraft design. It utilized much of the same production tooling that created the famous Piper Cub, as well as many of the Cub structural components (tail surfaces, landing gear, most of the wing parts).<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> The Vagabond has a wing that is one bay shorter (Template:Convert versus Template:Convert) than that on the Cub, which led to the unofficial term describing the type: Short Wing Piper. This allowed the aircraft to be built with minimal material, design and development costs, and is credited with saving Piper Aircraft from bankruptcy after the war.
The prototype PA-15 made its first flight on November 3, 1947, with deliveries of production aircraft beginning in January 1948.<ref name="aba493p93">Archive 1993 No. 4, p. 93</ref>
Vagabonds used a new fuselage with side-by-side seating for two instead of the Cub's tandem seating.<ref name="Foster"/>
The PA-17 Vagabond version features dual controls, enabling it to be used for pilot training. It has a bungee cord shock-absorbed landing gear (solid gear on the PA-15), and a Template:Convert Continental A-65 engine.<ref name="PlaneAndPilot"/> There was a small increase in climb rate and useful load over the PA-15, despite an increase in empty weight.<ref name="PSM49"/>
The Vagabond was followed by the Piper PA-16 Clipper, which is essentially a Vagabond with a Template:Convert longer fuselage, Lycoming O-235 engine of Template:Convert, extra wing fuel tank, and four seats. The Pacer, Tri-Pacer and Colt are all variations of the Vagabond design and thus all Short Wing Pipers.<ref name="PlaneAndPilot"/><ref name="Foster"/>
Operational history
In March 2018 there were still 167 PA-15s<ref name="FAA15">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and 101 PA-17s<ref name="FAA17">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> registered in the USA.
There were 13 PA-15s and 12 PA-17s registered in Canada in March 2018.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Variants
- PA-15 Vagabond
- Side-by-side two-seater powered by one Template:Convert Lycoming O-145 engine.<ref name="jawa48p311c">Bridgman 1948, p. 311c.</ref> 387 built, plus one converted from a PA-17.<ref name="aba394p74">Archive 1994 No. 3, p. 74.</ref>
- PA-17 Vagabond
- Also known as the Vagabond Trainer a variant of the PA-15 with dual-controls, shock-cord suspension and powered by one Template:Convert Continental A-65-8 engine.<ref name="aba493p93"/> 214 built.<ref name="airlifep295">Simpson 1995, p. 295</ref>
Specifications (PA-15)
See also
- 1948 in aviation (first flight)
Related development:
Comparable aircraft:
References
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