Kinner Airplane & Motor Corporation
Appearance
Kinner Airplane & Motor Corp was an airplane and engine manufacturer, founded in Glendale, California, United States by Bert Kinner in the mid-1920s. Kinner's chief engineer was Max B. Harlow who went on to found the Harlow Aircraft Company.[1] It went bankrupt in 1937 and the aircraft rights were sold to O.W. Timm Aircraft Company. The engine department was rearranged as Kinner Motor Inc in 1938, but folded in 1946. Kinner became the West Coast's largest producer of aircraft engines in 1941.[2]
Products
Aircraft designs
- Kinner K1 Airster, from around 1920, powered by a three-cylinder radial engine of 66 hp. Known to be the first aircraft that Amelia Earhart owned. Later specimens were nicknamed "Crackerbox" for its plywood fuselage.
- Kinner Sportste r K-1 and B-1, 1933, with a five-cylinder radial engine of 100 horsepower (75 kW) to 125 horsepower (93 kW). Became rather popular and sold in some dozen pieces. A few of them are still flying. The Kinner K-5 and B-5 engines were also delivered to a wide variety of other aircraft manufacturers, including Monocoupe, Waco, St. Louis Car Company, and Fleet. The design later evolved into the Security Aircraft Company Airster.
- Kinner Sportwing B-2, 1933, after the bankruptcy sold as Timm 2SA.
- Kinner Playboy R-1, 1933, two-seat sports monoplane.
- Kinner Envoy C-7, 1934 with 300 horsepower (220 kW) Kinner C-7 engine, with room for four persons. It was sold to private owner pilots and to the United States Navy as XRK-1, and remained in use well into the 1940s. This was the last production model of the Kinners.[3]
Engine designs
(in chronological order)
- Kinner K-5
- 100 hp (75 kW) radial engine
- Kinner B-5
- 125 hp (93 kW) radial engine
- Kinner R-5
- 160 hp (119 kW) radial engine
- Kinner C-5
- 245 hp (183 kW) radial engine, military designation R-720.
- Kinner C-7
- 340 hp (254 kW) radial engine, military designation R-1045-2.
References
- ^ John Underwood (Winter 1969). "The Quiet Professor". Air Progress Sport Aircraft.
- ^ Parker, Dana T. Building Victory: Aircraft Manufacturing in the Los Angeles Area in World War II, pp. 121, 125-6, Cypress, CA, 2013. ISBN 978-0-9897906-0-4.
- ^ Aerofiles
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Kinner Airplane & Motor Corporation.
- Aerofiles
- Enthusiasts' page
- Vintage engines
- "Wings Of Airplane Fold Up In Three Minutes" Kinner K-5 Sportster with optional wing fold, Popular Mechanics, March 1934
- "Air Riddles and The Answers" Kinner Courier, Popular Mechanics, February 1930 page 277