In the mid-thirties the Cunningham-Hall Aircraft Corporation of Rochester, New York designed and built a good looking low-wing aircraft which proved to be far ahead of its time. Designed by Randolph F. Hall it was to have both high and low speed capability.
The GA-36 built in 1935 was the outgrowth of previous designs. It was powered by a Warner Super Scarab engine and had full span flaps plus other high lift devices on the wing.
It was flown by several pilots who all spoke well of the craft. The GA-36 was fully aerobatic and had excellent slow speed flight ability. Apparently it was overbuilt and overweight, however, and did not fare well when its climb and top speed was compared with the performance of other 2 place planes of the day. It could have made good use of a controllable pitch propeller but one was never fitted.
The project was not continued and when the Cunningham-Hall Aircraft Corporation failed to bid successfully on government plane contracts, they manufactured aircraft parts and gun mounts during WW II.
In the meantime, the GA-36 sat in a hangar at the Rochester, New York Airport until 1941 when the Meyers Aircraft Company in Tecumseh, Michigan purchased the plane for its engine.
Among the pilots who were flying at the Rochester Airport at the time was a you ng man named Robert E. Kesel. Bob greatly admired the GA-36 and he and his friends considered it to be the "absolute epitome of a sport plane".
Bob is now an active member of Antique/Classic Chapter 6 of Rochester and through the years had never forgotten the plane. On June 28, 1978, quite by chance, Bob and some of his friends learned that the GA-36 still existed and was located at the Tecumseh, Michigan Airport where AI Meyers, of Meyers Aircraft, had removed the engine some 37 years previously.
The aircraft was obtained along with a complete set of factory drawings and now is the restoration project of Antique/Classic Chapter 6. This group is actively making the airplane airworthy and they are in need of donations. A major item needed is the Warner engine, either 145 or 165 hp. They have located two for sale, but the prices are beyond the group's means.
For donation purposes the group has formed a non-profit corporation called the GA-36 Association, Inc. The purpose of the restoration is "to insure that Rochester regains its proper place in the history of aviation during the days when real pioneering work was being done".
Bob Kesel and other Chapter 6 members will be promoting their project at Oshkosh '80 by manning booth number J-7 in the North Exhibit Building. They will display photos of the original plane as well as the current restoration. They will also have scale models of the GA-36 on display, and kits for sale for building 1/24 scale paper models of this beautiful aircraft.
For those interested in more details of the GA-36, the Summer, 1971 Journal of the American Aviation Historical Society contains a story of the Cunningham-Hall Aircraft Corporation by Randolph F. Hall, who was vice president and chief engineer of the company.
