Al Mooney's Culver Cadet

[Skybrd]

This last weekend we attended a Piper Cub fly in at Lompoc, Ca. There were more Cubs than I've ever seen at one time. Anyway while meeting lots of people I met one person that had a Culver Cadet on the line. He told me that Al Mooney designed it and had a mooney model designation right before the Mooney Mite. The Mooney Culver Cadet I saw was from Santa Ynez. I was told that it was like the Mite and M20A using wood wings and the Cadet had wood on the fuselage. I asked how the gear worked and if it was reliable. -- The fly in turned out great, with the help of two of our Mooney group members, Mitch and Jolie from Santa Maria.

[jetdriven]

IIRC it did 125 MPH on 75 HP as well

 

a real hot rod, a taste of things to come, such as the M20

[MooneyMitch]

Per Gordon Baxter's, The Al Mooney Story, the Culver Cadet was Al Mooney's 12th airplane design.  It is titled the M-12.  The first M-12 prototype test flight was on December 3rd, 1939.  The aircraft was flown by one Foster Lane, owner of the FBO, which was located in the front half of a huge old TWA hangar at Port Columbus airport.  The back half of the hangar was the Culver Dart factory.

 

If you do not own the Al Mooney Story book, I highly recommend it.  It's available for purchase on the MAPA web site.

 

It was good to visit with you at the Cub Fly-In Darrel.

[DaV8or]

Side story-

 

My best friend's (been friends over 40 years) Grandpa was a flight instructor during the early days of WWII. Interestingly, his personal plane was a 1940 Culver Cadet. We have a photo of him with the plane and know the NC number. I have tied the FAA website, but the plane doesn't come up and I'd love to know what happened to it and where it might be now. Sadly, my friend's Grandpa died of a heart attack during WWII and my friend never knew him.

 

The Cadet is pretty cool and very rare today. I have seen way more Mites and Swifts on the ramp than Cadets.

[Culver LFA]

On 7/16/2013 at 12:34 AM, DaV8or said:

Side story-

 

My best friend's (been friends over 40 years) Grandpa was a flight instructor during the early days of WWII. Interestingly, his personal plane was a 1940 Culver Cadet. We have a photo of him with the plane and know the NC number. I have tied the FAA website, but the plane doesn't come up and I'd love to know what happened to it and where it might be now. Sadly, my friend's Grandpa died of a heart attack during WWII and my friend never knew him.

 

The Cadet is pretty cool and very rare today. I have seen way more Mites and Swifts on the ramp than Cadets.

Old post but I have records on almost every Culver Cadet produced, if you provide the serial or N# I will look it up in our archives and send you what I have.  The archives were compiled not by me, but Stan Piteau who spent decades researching and updating these records.  He passed this on to me a few years ago and we still host a table at Oshkosh each year on the Vintage Type Club area.

[Keith20EH]

[MBDiagMan]

Is the Cadet 5he one that they ultimately made the target drone out of?

[Culver LFA]

9 minutes ago, MBDiagMan said:

Is the Cadet 5he one that they ultimately made the target drone out of?

Yes, the Army PQ-8A / Navy TDC-2 was based off of the Cadet design.