Culver Model V

Still one of the cutest airplanes ever built. Very comfortable to fly. Under-powered aircraft were common back then. Remember the Swift GC1A at 85hp.?

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I recall the Culver drone well. They were all painted red and when I was instructing at Norman Oklahoma they stopped in for refueling while being ferried to point of destruction. They were radio controlled and the best man at my wedding had a tour of duty flying them with a control box in the cockpit to check out the operations before turning them over to the fleet for target practice

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My Dad (Bruce McComb) and his brother Kenneth crashed a Culver V in the Hollywood Hills near what is now Forrest Lawn Cemetary on July 4, 1949. Dad said the oil pump shaft sheared. Dad broke his back and Kenneth was seriously injured but recovered. I used to have his Log Book and photos of the crash site but lost them over the years.

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I just came into possession of (4) Sensenich C276A2 prop blades; researching these blades led me to the Culver V.
It seems like another one of those neat little designs that should have made it big in the post-war market. Now,
I've got to go out and find one to photograph.

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The Culver I flew in 1947 was a TAIL DRAGGER and was owned by a friend whom said it had been a drone. Never did check this out. But....the little thing flew quite nicely.

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I remember Culvers at the Detroit City Airport right after WWII. They had a remputation for the landing gear collapsing.

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I owned Culver V N44513 in early 1953. At the time I went from about 30 hours in J3's and Champs to the "V" with no problems and flew it for about 50 hours with no problems before I was shipped off to Korea with the US Army. It was a nice flying little airplane that would have been a great airplane with 125 HP instead of the 85 Continental. I sold the airplane in El Paso in May of 1956 on my way overseas and often wonder what became of it.

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Prior to WWII, the Culver Cadet was one of the most popular two place singles on the market. During WWII, Culver was in the market producing the Target Drones used by the military for gunnery practice. Some of the PQ-13 design can be seen in the Culver V, which turned out to be a big disappointment for the post war flying community. It did not last for any length of time. I believe that a more powerful engine would have helped.

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I own a Culver V, N3104K. I agree that it needs more power, maybe 125 HP. Mine has a fuel injection 85 HP Continental, electrically retracted tricycle gear, the trim wheel repositions the horizontal stabilizer and has positions for takeoff, climb, cruise, descend and land. For stability, instead of having a constant dihedral of the wing joined at the center fuselage, the center 2 /3 of the wing is flat with a solid main spar, the outside 1 /3 of each wing panel has increased dihedral with a bit of forward sweep. The prop was available either with a Sensenitch two-position prop or a pilot adjustable Beech-Roby, which my aircraft has. In short, Al Money's design has a lot of advanced aerodynamic features for 1946.

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I owned two Culver Vs in the 1940s-1950s. All the V needed was more horse power. Al Mooney's design was ahead of its time. (Both of my airplanes are apparently gone, since the N numbers have been re-assigned.

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