Rockwell U-9C Turbo Commander - a photo on Flickriver

            The Aero Commander/Turbo Commander has a convoluted history.  During World War II, a team of Douglas Aircraft engineers on the A-20 Havoc production line wondered if the light bomber could be turned into a postwar light commuter airliner.  The engineers got together and designed a variant of the A-20 with space for seven passengers and a roomier fuselage, but with the same basic wing, tail and cockpit layout.  They were so impressed with the result that they quit their jobs at war's end and formed the Aero Design and Engineering Company.  

A prototype of their L3805 design was built and flown in April 1948, but Aero simply lacked the ability to enter mass production and market the aircraft.  After being rejected by Beech Aircraft, Fairchild Aircraft agreed to pick up the L3805 as the Aero Commander 520.  The first of these production versions would fly in 1951.  In the mid-1960s, Fairchild sold the design to North American, which shortly thereafter changed its name to Rockwell Aviation.  As such, further developments of the Aero Commander, such as the turboprop-powered Turbo Commander, would be built under the Rockwell name.  

3142 Commanders would be built in no less than 33 variants, marketed as the Aero Commander, Turbo Commander, Shrike Commander, Hawk Commander, and Grand Commander.  Though not as well known as some of the other aircraft in the light commuter/medium general aviation category, it sold well enough, despite several high profile crashes.  The FAA determined that the Aero Commander had the highest rate of engine failures of any twin-engined general aviation aircraft, though the Turbo Commander had the lowest rate.  To reassure customers, Rockwell flew an Aero Commander from the plant in Oklahoma to Washington DC on one engine, and famed stunt pilot Bob Hoover toured the airshow circuit with a Shrike Commander, in which he performed an aerobatic routine.  Production ended in 1986, but hundreds of Commanders remain in service worldwide.

Not long after the Aero Commander entered production at Fairchild in 1952, the US Army and USAF expressed interest in the design as a medium utility aircraft.  After testing, both services ordered a batch as the L-26, but it was later redesignated the U-4 (for the USAF) and U-9 (for the Army).  These were used mainly to transport high-ranking officials around the country; one U-4B was used by President Dwight Eisenhower to make short hops that did not require the use of the larger "Air Force Ones" like the VC-121 or VC-137.  These reliable aircraft remained in service into the 1980s, when they were replaced by jet aircraft, and were subsequently passed to the US Coast Guard and Customs Service, which used them until 2014.  Standard Aero and Turbo Commanders were also sold to dozens of air forces, and the type is especially popular in South America and Iran.  

Army U-9s are a relatively rare sight in museums; only nine were ever used.  This one, 56-4026, is at the Russell Military Museum in Zion, Illinois.  It is a U-9C, based on the Aero Commander 680 variant, though it started life as a U-4B assigned to the USAF before being transferred to the Army in 1962.  It is known to have been assigned to Fort Rucker, Alabama at least once in its career, and used to be on display at the Chanute Air Museum in Rantoul, Illinois.  When that museum shut down in 2016, the Russell Museum acquired 56-4026.

Though it is missing its engines and rudder, the influence of the A-20 Havoc design can very much be seen in this view.  It wears the standard US Army utility aircraft scheme of olive drab with white uppersurfaces, to avoid heat effects on the passenger cabin.
Taken on: May 20, 2018
Tags:
Rockwell
U-9
AeroCommander
USArmy
utility
aircraft
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Sets appears in: • Aviation Photography
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