Transavia PL-12 Airtruk

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The Transavia PL-12 Airtruk is a single-engine agricultural sesquiplane aircraft designed by Transavia in Australia. The Airtruk is of all metal construction with the cockpit mounted above a tractor engine and short pod fuselage with rear doors. It has twin tail booms with two unconnected tails. Its first flight was in 1965. It has a wingspan of 12.15m and a length of 6.35m and carries up to three passengers. It is powered by one 300 horsepower engine. It has a range of 700 nautical miles (1300 km) at a cruise speed of 101 knots. Its maximum speed is 112 knots and its maximum rate of climb is 344 m/min, with a service ceiling of 10500ft. It has an empty weight of 830 kg and a gross takeoff weight of 1723 kg.

It was developed from the Bennett Airtruck designed in New Zealand by Luigi Pellarini. It has a 1 tonne capacity hopper and is able to ferry two passengers as a topdresser. It can be used as a cargo, ambulance or aerial survey aircraft, and carry one passenger in the top deck and four in the lower deck.

The Airtruk is also sometimes known as the Airtruck. Because the name "Airtruck" was registered by the New Zealand companies Bennett Aviation ltd and Waitomo Aircraft ltd, for their PL-11, Transavia found another name for their PL-12 ("Airtruk").

July 1971 saw the first flight of an improved modelled, the T-300 Skyfarmer, which was powered by a Textron Lycoming IO540 engine. This was followed in 1981 by the T-300A with improved aerodynamics.

The PL-12 was featured in the 1985 movie Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome.

As at 2008, there are at least three examples in museums in New Zealand, with an additional one being restored to airworthy status.

[edit] Variants

PL-12 Airtruk : Single-engined agricultural aircraft.
PL-12U : Multi-purpose utility transport, air ambulance, aerial survey aircraft.
T-320 Skyfarmer : Powered by a 320-hp Rolls-Royce/Continental Tiara 6-320-2B piston engine.
T-300A Skyfarmer : Improved version of the T-320.
PL-12 MIL : Multi-role utility transport, air ambulance, forward air control, light attack, counter-insurgency aircraft. Also known as the M-300.
PL-12 550T : Powered by a 550-hp Pratt & Whitney Canada PT-6A turboprop engine.