Loving WR-1 Love

The Loving/Wayne WR-1 Love is a single seat, midget racer built in the 1950s.[2]

WR-1 Love
The WR-1 on display
Role Racing aircraft
National origin United States
Manufacturer Wayne Aircraft Company
Designer Neil Loving
First flight 7 August 1950[1]

Design and development

The WR-1 is a single place, gull-winged aircraft with conventional landing gear. The fuselage uses wood truss construction with aircraft fabric covering. The all-wood, plywood covered gull-wing features faired, fixed landing gear at the lowest point. The design was submitted and approved by the professional racing pilots association in 1948 with construction starting in January 1949.[3]

Operational history

In the 1951 National Air Races pilot Neal Vernon Loving qualified with a 266 mph (428 km/h) dive. The aircraft's spinner separated, damaging the propeller.[4]

In December 1953, Loving flew the WR-1 2200 miles from Detroit to Kingston, Jamaica, an unusually long trip for a new experimental design of the era.[5]

In 1954, the design was the winner of the Most Outstanding Design award at the Experimental Aircraft Association Fly-in at Rockford, Illinois.

Specifications (WR-1)

Data from EAA, Air Trails

General characteristics

  • Crew: 1
  • Length: 17 ft 2 in (5.23 m)
  • Wingspan: 20 ft (6.1 m)
  • Height: 4 ft 4 in (1.32 m)
  • Wing area: 66 sq ft (6.1 m2)
  • Empty weight: 613 lb (278 kg)
  • Gross weight: 815 lb (370 kg)
  • Fuel capacity: 15
  • Powerplant: 1 × Continental C85 4-cyl. air-cooled horizontally-opposed piston engine, 85 hp (63 kW)
  • Propellers: 2-bladed

Performance

  • Maximum speed: 187 kn (215 mph, 346 km/h)
  • Cruise speed: 135 kn (155 mph, 249 km/h)
  • Stall speed: 50 kn (58 mph, 93 km/h)
  • Range: 390 nmi (450 mi, 720 km)
  • Service ceiling: 18,000 ft (5,500 m)
  • Rate of climb: 2,100 ft/min (11 m/s)

References
  1. Betty Kaplan Gubert; Miriam Sawyer; Caroline M. Fannin. Distinguished African Americans in Aviation and Space Science. p. 202.
  2. Air Trails: 78. Winter 1971. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  3. "Loving/Wayne WR-1". Retrieved 2 September 2013.
  4. Charlie Cooper; Ann Cooper. Tuskegee's Heroes. p. 33.
  5. Experimenter. June 1954. Missing or empty |title= (help)
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.