The Gannet was an attempt, in 1923, to produce an ultralight plane for the common man. It used an experimental two-stroke engine and it’s biplane wings folded back to allow storage in a car garage. However, performance was very poor and the payload was nearly useless due to the anemic output of the engine. Few were built and the plane quickly faded into obscurity.
The Gannet is unlikely to appear in a conventional WWII campaign. However, its low weight and compact size might make it useful for use in some special operations mission. For the same reasons, one might pop up in a 1920’s or 1930’s Cliffhanger adventure to remote areas.
The Gannet uses 0.24 gallons of aviation fuel per hour at routine usage.
Subassemblies: Recon Plane with chassis +2, Recon Plane Wings
with folding option +2, three fixed wheels +0.
P&P: 5.2-kW aerial HP gasoline engine with 5.2-kW old prop
and 3.5-gallon standard fuel tank [Body].
Occ: 1 XCS Cargo: None
| Armor | F | R/L | B | T | U |
| All | 2/2C | 2/2C | 2/2C | 2/2C | 2/2C |
Statistics
| Size: 18'x17'x6' | Payload: 0.06 tons | Lwt: 0.21 tons |
| Volume: 48 | Maint.: 256 hours | Price: $600 |
HT: 12
HP: 15 [body], 6 [each wing], 2 [each wheel]
| aSpeed: 65 | aAccel: 1 | aDecel: 21 | aMR: 5.25 | aSR: 1 | |
| Stall: 28 mph |
Design Notes
Design aSpeed was 31 mph. The historical speed has been used, as well
as the actual wing area (103 square feet). Loaded weight was decreased
17%. Historical landing speed was 35 mph. As stall speed is normally slightly
lower than this, the design value of 28 mph was used.
Note that the extremely low payload of the Gannet requires the pilot and his gear to weigh 100 lbs or less.
Although the Gannet was a biplane, the wing surface of the standard Recon Wings were closest to the historical value, so they were used. Even so, wing weight, HP and cost were halved to reduce weight.