Central Centaur of 1946,What Was it ?

[hesham]

From Flying 1946-8,

I can't ID this airplane well,they wrote on it; Central Centaur ?!,
was that a right name ?.

 

[fortrena]

Central Aviation Engineering PR-2 Centaur?

 

[hesham]

Central Aviation Engineering PR-2 Centaur?

Hi Fortrena,

what was that aircraft ?,I never heard about it before ?.

 

[fortrena]

Same here.

Found the name on page 282 of https://sirismm.si.edu/EADpdfs/NASM.XXXX.1183.A.pdf

 

[riggerrob]

Same here.

Found the name on page 282 of https://sirismm.si.edu/EADpdfs/NASM.XXXX.1183.A.pdf

According to that document, two different companies built airplanes called "Central Centaur." One company was in the UK and the other company was in Wichita, Kansas.
The photo above is of the Centaur built in Wichita, Kansas. It resembles one of the Bell fighters built during WW2: P-39 Airacobra, P-63 Kingcobra or the tail-dragger Airbonita built for the US Navy.

 

[Apophenia]

Tough company to find info on! It doesn't help that there is a tiny firm called Central Aviation in Wichita today (formed in 1984).

The original Central Aviation Engineering Co. does comes up in a table in Report of War Plants and Services in Urgency Rating Bands III Thru VII, Volumes 7-10, April-July 1945, Office of the Deputy Vice Chairman for Field Production Operations, War Production Board. Products are listed a "Glider parts". So, Central may have been supplying CG-4 bits to Boeing (weirdly, acting as a Cessna subcontractor).

Another online source lists Allan B. Eacrett acting as principle for the Central Aviation Engineering Company. According to his obituary, Allan Bisbee Eacrett (1908-1988) was an aeronautical engineer who had worked for "Boeing, Hughes, North American, Northrup (sic), and Lockheed".

1988-02-11 · Digital Augusta

Digitized records and local history of Augusta, Kansas USA

augusta.digitalsckls.info

As near as I can tell, Eacrett was Canadian by birth - his parents seemingly moving to the US in 1910. Prior to this, Eacrett's father lived in Exeter, Ontario. His Canadian-born mother was Elizabeth Ann Bisbee - hence the middle name.