Transavia PL-12 Airtruk (Air Truk)
Transavia PL-12 Airtruk is a single-engine agricultural sesquiplane* aircraft designed by Transavia in Australia. The Airtruk cockpit is mounted above a tractor engine and short pod fuselage with rear doors. It has twin tail booms with two unconnected tails. Its first flight was in 1965.
*A variation on the biplane was the sesquiplane, where one wing (usually the lower) was significantly smaller than the other, either in span, chord, or both. On occasion, the lower wing was only large enough to support the bracing struts for the upper wing. The name means "one-and-a-half wings
Fiddlers Green folks, you out did yourselves again !! Awesome !! And a giant welcome to David. Harold
mmmmmm......Sir Chip, if I saw that thing coming down the road here in my home town of Stanley, I know it would fit right in! Looks like an Italian in New Zealand designed it according to the write-up. Certainly must have been built for practicality and not aesthetics! I had a concern that the elevators weren't large enough to give it "up" and "down" but I guess they worked just fine. Seems as if I remember an Italian WWII experimental jet where the pilot sat way on top of the fuselage similar to the Truk........I don't guess Peterbilt or Freightliner will have any copyright concerns! heh......Duck
Latest model looks weird and wonderful, might give it a try, as break from work and sailing ship model I found on japanese site. The rigging is making me wonky. David b
Hey Chipperoo--
Good on you mate! I saw one of these things in the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney Oz a few years ago. Keep those weirdo's coming! John Freeman
Really cool. I've always liked the AirTruk in a weird kind of way. TW
Ya know, all this time I never knew the Mad Max plane was a REAL plane...I'm duly impressed with the model as well as being forced to learn yet something else... Z (Zawali du sable)
Just had the chance to look the model over. Great work Dave! Tobi Wan
hey from the land down under
I'm really into planes but as a teenager, never had the money
to really get lots of plastic kits... time was an issue 2
. but then i discovered u guys and now iv built every free
plane and am still convincing my dad that the internet is fine to buy things off and u guys aren't credit card
frauds or whatever, so i can buy 2 of my fav. planes tiger moth
and beaver, even better a yellow tiger moth, yay.
On the airtruk, when my dad was an aero he went to testing
of the airtruk, and it was really primitive, they piled sandbags
on the wingtips until something broke, strengthened it then
started again with the piling. So yes, that's about it oh and could u guys do a beaufort because
my grandfather flew them and it would be cool to give him 1 and my computer was running low
on ink so i have a pink geebee woohoo
cya.. Robert from Australia
Transavia PL-12 Airtruk
Transavia
PL-12 Airtruk was developed from the Bennett Airtruck designed in New Zealand
by Luigi Pellarini. It has a 2200 lb capacity hopper. Initially
designed as a specialized agricultural aircraft, it was refined
over the years and used for many purposes. The Air Truk can be
used as a cargo, military surveillance and medivac roles, aerial
survey aircraft, and, amazingly, carry one passenger in the top
deck and four in the lower deck. Many were exported to countries
such as Denmark, Yugoslavia, Spain, Africa, China and New Zealand.
The Airtruk is still in use as an agricultural aircraft.
The Airtruk is also sometimes known as the Airtruck. Because the
name "Airtruck" was registered by the New Zealand companies
Bennett Aviation ltd and Waitomo Aircraft ltd, for their PL-11,
Transavia found another name for their PL-12 ("Airtruk").
July 1971 saw the first flight of an improved model, the T300
Skyfarmer, which was powered by a Textron Lycoming 10540 engine.
This was followed in 1981 by the T300A with improved aerodynamics.
The PL-12 was featured in the 1985 movie "Mad Max Beyond
Thunderdome."
A few views of the actual Airtruk model designed and built by David Roy. This is his second model ever. His first one was the MiG-3 |
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Specifications for the Transavia PL-12 Airtruk (Air Truk)
Crew: 1 |
Transavia PL-12 Airtruk crashed while trying to land on a small airstrip at Mardan last March 2, 2010. The pilot walked away uninjured, but the plane was destroyed. |