|
In 1962 the
legendary aircraft designer Jim Bede designed the BD-1 two-seater. It featured
many interchangable parts such as wings, rudder and elevators. It also
had folding wings for easy storage, and a sliding canopy.
The BD-1 never entered production, but a company
named American Aviation Corporation was formed and they made some re-designing
on the model by omitting the folding wings, extending the wingtips to improve
rate of-climb and some other improvements.
The aircraft was named AA1 Yankee Clipper and the first aircraft were produced
in 1969. It was noted for it’s exceptionally light handling and high
cruise-speed. It also featured aluminum honeycomb panels and metal to metal
bonding for exceptional strenght, durability and speed. This revolutionary
system was also incorporated in all the other aircraft types to follow.
The AA1 was an immidiate succes on the market
but due to it’s sharp stall-characteristics and high approach speed
the company re-designed the wing to make the aircraft better for basic traning.
This also reduced the cruising speed compared to the original. The aircraft was
intended for flying school operations and it was named AA1A Trainer.
Another variant of the Trainer, that was designed
for the personal-use market and had a cruise-prop for higher speed, was named
AA1B Tr2.
There was also a need for a 4-seater,
and the engineers at American Aviation quickly designed it by developing it
from the AA1 construction and changing the engine to a Lycoming O320-E2G 150 hp
The aircraft also had a sliding
canopy, and the flight characteristics were again superb. It was named AA5
Traveler and the production started in 1972.
In 1973 American Aviation was bought by Grumman, a company famous for it’s
naval fighters, Apollo lunar landing modules, and the Gulfstream corporate jet.
The company was named Grumman American and
mass production of the 2- and 4-seaters began.
In 1975 the Traveler featured
a new nose cowl and main gear fairings and some other aerodynamical
improvements.
The big news that year was
the introduction of the AA5B Tiger also a four-seater. It had the Lycoming
O-360-A4K 180 hp engine and the cruise speed was 139 kts. It was faster than
all the other aircraft in it’s class. According to a pilot-report in an
aviation magazine it was even faster than a 200hp.Piper Arrow with a constant
speed prop.and retractable gear!
The aircraft became very popular and 1323 of them
were built.
The AA5 Traveler was also improved again and the
result was the AA5A Cheetah that basically was a Tiger with a smaller 150hp
engine.Because of it’s large fuel tanks the Cheetah had a 657 nm. range.
In 1977 the Grumman
American light aircraft line was acquired by Gulfstream Aerospace who named it
Gulfstream American. That company re-designed
the AA1B two-seater with a 115hp Lycoming engine and a new tail. Two versions
were made, one for flying schools named T-Cat and the other version for private
owners was named AA1C Lynx.
A twin-engined aircraft
called GA7 Cougar was also produced from 1978-1979. That aircraft was later
produced by the French aviation company Socata and it was re-named Tangara.
In 1979 Gulfstream American stopped their
light-aircraft production.
In 1990 a new company named American General
Aviation Corporation started producing the new updated AG5B Tiger in Greenville
Miss. The new Tiger had a 28 volt electrical system and a new central power
quadrant, new cowling made of composite and other improvements.Only 181 AG5B
Tigers were produced when the company closed it's doors in 1993.
The Tiger has always been a very popular aircraft design, and in 1999 a new
company was again formed to put the
Tiger back into production. The Tiger Aircraft LLC commenced production of the
AG5B in 2001 at their plant in Martinsburg,West Virginia. The new version
has again been modified and has among
other things a G 1000 all-glass flight deck.. The company also holds the type
certificates for the 2-seater models. More about The Tiger Aircraft LLC here: http://www.tigeraircraft.com
The name of these great aircraft has always been a small problem
because they have been produced by so many different companies. Usually they
are all just called ”Grummans”, and that is a name at least all the owners
like to use!
The first AA1 Yankees OH-AYA and OH-AYB were registred in Finland in december
1970. All in all 21 Grummans of different types were registred. Most of them
are still flying to-day .
The Importers/distributors in
Finland were: Teknopiste/Lentopiste and Bee-Air Oy.
| 
