Culp Special

The Culp Special is an American aerobatic homebuilt aircraft designed and produced by Culp's Specialties of Shreveport, Louisiana. The aircraft is supplied as a kit or in the form of plans for amateur construction.

Design and development
The Culp Special is intended to resemble an aircraft of the 1930s. It features a wire and strut-braced biplane layout, a two-seats-in-tandem open cockpit with dual windshields, fixed conventional landing gear with wheel pants, and a single engine in tractor configuration.

The aircraft is made from welded steel tubing and wood, all covered in doped aircraft fabric. Its 24.00 ft span wing has a wing area of 161 sqft. The standard engine used is the Russian 360 hp Vedeneyev M14P nine cylinder, air-cooled, four stroke radial engine.

The Culp Special has a typical empty weight of 1480 lb and a gross weight of 2100 lb, giving a useful load of 620 lb. With full fuel of 70 u.s.gal the payload for pilot, passengers, and baggage is 200 lb.

The manufacturer estimates the construction time from the supplied kit as 2500 hours.

Operational history
By 1998 the company reported that one aircraft was flying.

In December 2016, three examples were registered in the United States with the Federal Aviation Administration and one in Canada with Transport Canada.