Twin Pioneer Development

[Petrus]

Scottish Aviation, after the success of their Twin Pioneer started to work on its development/replacement. There were some such projects: Turbo Pioneer (1956), Super Twin Pioneer (1960) and a design referred to as the "3 tonner general purpose".

Here is some information that I've just gathered from the Flight magazine archives and a Royal Malaysian Air Force Museum's website, which contains "Twin Pioneer Newsletter" (http://www.malaysian-museums.org/rmaf/archive/twinpin.htm).

Hopefully someone has more on these projects, esp. the Turbo Pioneer.

Piotr

 

[Jemiba]

Shame, all I can say about the source is "via internet", my term for one of those sites,
where hundreds of 3-views are gathered, but always without giving credit to anybody. :-\

 

[boxkite]

I could bet three-view drawing is from the book "Lion Rampant and Winged: A Commemorative History of Scottish Aviation Limited" by Alan Robertson. It was published by McCorquodale from Scotland in 1986 (soft cover -> ISBN 0951112309 / hard cover -> ISBN 0951112317). I've just scanned the more important illustrations, but had not enough time to make copies of the relevant pages due to it was a library copy from very outside. There were several other interesting Schottish Aviation projects inside, e. g. Chieftain, Don Type I, Gleneagle, and Sapphire 1100, but this is a little bit OT.

Piotr, please send me an PM (including your e-mail address).

Furthermore I believe there was an AIR Enthusiast issue with an article on the Pioneer designs, but unfortunately I don't have the issues coming in question: # 10, # 12, or # 51. Maybe an owner of these AE can help Petrus .

 

[GTX]

Developments.

 

[hesham]

Very nice projects my dear GTX.

 

[Hood]

Although not strictly speaking a Twin Pioneer development, I'm posting this here to go with GTX's earlier attachment of the Clydesdale.

While doing some digging in the National Archives I came across a brief description of the Scottish Aviation Pegasus. A development of the Single Pioneer to meet the Army Air Corps for a new liaison aircraft, which was fulfilled by the DHC Beaver.
It had a new, larger but lighter fuselage with better aerodynamics and a cabin that could seat a pilot, crew member and six passengers. A larger side door was also fitted. The new wing was also lighter and had slightly less wing area but greater span than the Pioneer wing. The slots and flaps were replaced by simple slotted flaps. A more powerful Leonides would be fitted along with an 11ft diameter propeller, hopefully with reverse-pitch braking.

The Pegasus improved the payload/range performance at the expense of STOL performance and the reverse-pitch braking was essential if the landing run was to equal the Pioneer's. Based on Scottish Aviation's estimates the Ministry of Supply estimated R&D costs would be £250,000 and each aircraft would cost £25-30,000. The Air Ministry thought that would be nearer £40,000 given the last batch of Pioneer's cost £37,000. Development was thought to take just over two years.

 

[cluttonfred]

Would that be the Clydesdale posted above?

 

[Hood]

Yes, on second reading the drawing is a Clydesdale.
I suspect the Pegasus would be very similar.

 

[riggerrob]

I wonder how well the Super Single Pioneer would have competed with DHC-2 Beaver, DHC-3 single Otter and Fairchild Husky?
Remember that both Beaver and Husky were test-flown with the same single-row, Alvis Leonides engine as the Scottish Aviation single Pioneer.

I wonder how well the double-row, 1,000 horsepower Alvis Leonides Major engine would have served Scottish Aviation???? Could they have stayed in business long enough to compete with DHC or Pilatus Porter or Cessna Caravan?
Which engine was Scottish Aviation considering for the Turbo-Twin?

Turbo Twin Pioneer looks like it would compete directly with Shorts Skyvan and DHC-4 Cariboo, especially the later design studies with ramps under the tails.
How many tonnes could they LAPES off that ramp ?

 

[Abraham Gubler]

I wonder how well the Super Single Pioneer would have competed with DHC-2 Beaver, DHC-3 single Otter and Fairchild Husky?
Remember that both Beaver and Husky were test-flown with the same single-row, Alvis Leonides engine as the Scottish Aviation single Pioneer.

I wonder how well the double-row, 1,000 horsepower Alvis Leonides Major engine would have served Scottish Aviation? ??? Could they have stayed in business long enough to compete with DHC or Pilatus Porter or Cessna Caravan?

One of the advantages of the DHC bush planes is they used the Pratt & Whitney Wasp engine which thanks to WWII was ultra reliable and available in mass numbers with spares and mechanics to match. The Leonides Major might have been a better option for performance (it had a smaller diameter than similar P&W engines) but was a new engine without this huge groundswell of support behind it. For a bush plane operator, and many others, this is a very important consideration.