Swallow LT65

The Swallow LT65 or LT-65 was a trainer aircraft marketed by the Swallow Airplane Company in 1940. Swallow purchased the prototype from its builder, Dale Aircraft, but was unable to start manufacturing it before the demands of wartime production changed priorities for the company. This was Swallow's final attempt to produce an aircraft.

Design
The LT65 was a conventional, low-wing-monoplane with seating for the pilot and instructor in tandem, fully enclosed under an extensively glazed canopy. The wings were braced to the fuselage by struts and wires, and by wires to the main units of the fixed, tailwheel undercarriage. Those units were fully enclosed by large spats. Power was supplied by a piston engine in the nose driving a tractor propeller. It had a conventional tail.

The fuselage, empennage, and center sections of the wings were constructed from welded steel tube, and the wing outer panels had spruce spars and ribs. The whole aircraft was covered in fabric.

Development
Although Swallow's marketing of 1940 described the LT65 as "new" and "no re-hash of an old model", they had purchased the manufacturing rights and the prototype from the Dale Aircraft Company of Pomona, California, The Dale Aircraft Company logo is partially visible on Swallow's promotional picture of the type.

The first iteration of the design, the Dale A, registration NX18972 (later, NC18972) was powered by a 40 hp Continental A-40 engine.

When the 50 hp Menasco M-50 engine became available, designer Harold Dale built a second prototype to take advantage of it. This was called the Dale Air-Dale M-50, registration NC21736, and Dale entered a business partnership with George M. Frohlich and Roland J. Brownsberger to market it. It was offered in open-cockpit and canopied versions.

Swallow bought this second prototype and the manufacturing rights to the design, hoping to market it to flying schools with a more powerful 65 hp Continental engine, dual controls, and provision for dual flight and engine instruments. It was marketed as being easy to fly, maintain, and overhaul. In 1941, Swallow was preparing for production of the type in a new factory with 40000 sqft of floorspace. However, the outbreak of World War II disrupted the civil aviation market, and diverted resources and manufacturing capacity. Swallow never sold any LT65s, and spent the war years training aircraft mechanics and manufacturing components for Boeing bombers.

Variants

 * Dale A
 * First prototype, with Continental A-40 engine


 * Dale Air-Dale M-50
 * Second prototype, with Menasco M-50 engine


 * Swallow LT65
 * Second prototype offered for sale by Swallow with a 65-hp engine