Windecker Industries
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Windecker Industries was an aircraft manufacturer originally founded in 1962 as Windecker Research. It was the first company to produce and market powered aircraft built predominantly of composite materials (in this case, foam and fiberglass). The company was founded by Leo Windecker, a dentist from Lake Jackson, Texas.
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[edit] History
Initial tests of composite wings on conventional airplane bodies proved promising, so the company built an experimental prototype of all-composite aircraft, the Windecker ACX-7 Eagle. Designed by Dr. Leo Windecker and his wife, Dr. Fairfax Windecker (also a dentist), the aircraft was molded from a unidirectional fiberglass called Fibaloy. The fuselage was made in two halves and joined like a model kit; the wings were full core foam around a tubular spar fuel tank. The first prototype flew in October 1967.
The certification Eagle prototype, incorporating retractable landing gear, crashed during spin testing for certification by the Federal Aviation Administration. After a redesign, the AC-7 became the first composite aircraft to receive FAA certification, in December of 1969. (A number of composite sailplane designs were already certified by foreign authorities, however.) Windecker went on to produce six civilian Eagles in the early 1970s.
Composite aircraft construction had a ready military application, because composites are nearly invisible to conventional radar systems. A test of a Windecker Eagle against an Air Force radar system, for instance, registered only the engine and the landing gear, not the composite body. Windecker built Eagle 9 under contract to DARPA, incorporating numerous modifications to reduce its radar detectability, and delivered it, as the YE-5, to the Air Force who tested secretly for five years at Eglin AFB, Florida.
Windecker Industries continued with military contracts, designing and building the US Air Force Aequare remotely-piloted vehicle (now called UAVs) for Lockheed Missiles and Space Company. The owners of Windecker Industries closed the company in 1975. (A restart attempt was made in 1977 by Jerry Dietrick, who bought the rights and tooling, but no more aircraft were constructed.)
Leo Windecker received twenty-two patents for all aspects of composite aircraft construction, all of which were assigned to the Dow Chemical Company who funded the research. This technology was licensed to other firms such as Lockheed Martin, Northrop and the DeLorean Motor Company. In 2003, Leo Windecker was inducted into the Texas Aviation Hall of Fame, and he has been nominated for the National Aviation Hall of Fame. Windecker Eagle 7 was donated to the National Air and Space Museum in 1985; it waits in storage, although it is planned to be put on display in the museum's new facility at the Dulles Airport. Leo Windecker's Eagle, No. 5, is on display in the Lake Jackson Historical Society Museum in Lake Jackson, Texas. The YE-5 Stealth prototype is in the Army Aviation Museum at Ft. Rucker, AL.
[edit] Specifications of the Windecker Eagle AC-7
- Wingspan: 32 ft (9.8 m)
- Length: 28 ft, 8 in (8.7 m)
- Height: 9 ft, 6 in (2.9 m)
- Gross takeoff weight: 3,400 lb (1,500 kg)
- Empty weight: 2,150 lb (975 kg)
- Wing loading: 19.3 lb/ft²
- Max. speed (sea level): 210 mph (338 km/h)
- Cruise speed (75% power): 204 mph (328 km/h)
- Stall speed (flaps down): 66 mph (106 km/h)
- Range: 1,100 mi (1,770 km)
- Ceiling: 18,000 ft (5,500 m)
- Rate of climb (sea level): 1,220 ft/min (372 m/min)
- Takeoff run: 855 ft (260 m)
- Powerplant: Continental 10-520C, 285 hp
[edit] References
- Burmeier, Beverly. "Plastic Fantastic." The History Channel Magazine, September/October, 2005, pp. 22-23.
- "The Eagle Returns", Private Pilot Magazine, Sept. 1978.
