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Description
| Manufacturer: | Culver | |
| Base model: | TD2C | |
| Designation: | TD2C | |
| Version: | -1 | |
| Nickname: | Cadet | |
| Equivalent to: | PQ-14A | |
| Designation System: | U.S. Navy / Marines | |
| Designation Period: | 1942-1946 | |
| Basic role: | Target Drone | |
| Crew: | 0 | |
Specifications
| Length: | 19' 6" | 5.9 m | |
| Wingspan: | 30' | 9.1 m | |
| Gross Weight: | 1,820 lb | 825 kg | |
Propulsion
| No. of Engines: | 1 | ||
| Powerplant: | Franklin O-300-11 | ||
| Horsepower (each): | 150 | ||
Performance
| Max Speed: | 180 mph | 289 km/h | 156 kt |
Known serial numbers
Examples of this type may be found at
| Museum | City | State |
| National Museum of Naval Aviation | NAS Pensacola | Florida |
Recent comments by our visitors
| brad kapolei, HI | We are looking for a TD2C! Would like to display it as a drone stationed at NAS Puunene in Hawaii! Please call us at 682-3982. email brad@nambp.com Or our website at www.nambp.com
Aloha Brad 07/28/2008 @ 17:40 [ref: 22286] |
| Kelly H , AZ | My father just recently passed away and I inherited his 1940 Culver Cadet LCA (C-75). He has had it for 30+ years and at this point it needs restoration. I am trying to figure out what to do, if I should sell it to someone or give it to the local air museum in honor of my father. I know he would want to see it restored. If anyone can offer me any information about the aircraft as far as value, what is takes to restore, etc, that would be greatly appreciated. I just don't know what to do. Thank you! 03/29/2008 @ 18:57 [ref: 20290] |
| Bob Doernberg Akron, OH | In 1962 I was a Junior at Culver Military Academy in northern Indiana. While at home in Spencerville, Ohio that summer, I was taking flight instructions at a small grass strip just west of town, and the owner, Bob Croft, had a Culver Cadet on the flight line. I got him to let me fly it from the left seat, thereby likely becoming the one and only Culver Cadet to every fly a Culver Cadet.
I still remember pulling on the gear retraction handle, and having the gear instantaniously disappear into the wings. It was a very exciting and stable plane. I only wish I had been able to continue to enjoy that experience. Unfortunately, Bob sold the plan soon thereafter. 03/05/2008 @ 10:07 [ref: 19867] |
| Ethel Altman Mortimer Coconut Creek, FL | My cousin, Jeff Altman, made some comments about my father, Jimmy Altman (deceased) and his Culver Cadet. I will try to clear up a few facts. Dad and I were very close and he was my flight instructer. I flew with him many times in the Culver and cross cuntry with the Civil Air Patrol. Dad was a Lt. in the C.A.P. and flew many secret missions out of the Pittsburgh area for the many industries there. One I remember was the famous Nordon Boom Sight. He was called upon any time during the day or nite for verious flighs with papers, etc. Of couse, he used the his fast Culver. He used that plane all during the war and sold it after the war ended. At that fime he turned to restoring antique cars. It's too bad that more isn't noted about the many great things the Civil Air Patrol did for the war effort. I soloed at age of 16 and quickly earned my private license. This was during the 1941-45 period. My girl friends and I were striving to get to the WASP's but the war ended on my 18th birthday and I missed all the fun of flying the big air force plans. Just wanted to give you my memories of a Culver Cadet during WWII. 01/22/2008 @ 10:15 [ref: 19397] |
| Paul Rule Mesa, AZ | I have owned and restored Culver Cadets for several years. The Culver Cadet was designated the PQ-8 with the 90 HP Franklin engine, Several thousand were made during the war. The PQ-14 was a later follow-on with the higher HP engine and (I think) was also designated the TD2C-1. The PQ-14 was never called the "Cadet". Production of the civilian Cadet (models LCA & LFA) ended in 1942. None were made after the war. Culver made a completely different aircraft called the Culver "V" after the war.
The only post war fatal accident in the Cadet type that I know of was at the Helton Aircraft Company here in Mesa, AZ. Helton produced a very few civilian versions of the PQ-8 and one of there test pilots was killed during spin tests. The airplane spins easily and well, and spins are not dangerous of done well. Because it is a fast, slick little airplane it builds speed very quickly... the easy way for Culver to solve any problems in this area was to placard the airplane aginst spins. 01/20/2007 @ 16:38 [ref: 15244] |
| Jeff Altman Lincoln, NE | There is a story related to the Culver Cadet that my father told me a number of years before his death, and I find myself wondering whether it is true, or simply one of those family myths that has continued to be carried on. My uncle Jimmy Altman, was a private pilot prior to World War II, and among the planes he had owned, was a Culver Cadet. According to my father, uncle Jim obtained his commmercial pilot license in the Cadet. This apparently was due to the fact that at that time, this rating in part required the use of an aircraft above a certain horse power, and his J3 Cub didn't meet this requirement. At that time, the story goes, the commercial pilot license test required, among a variety of maneuvers, that the pilot spinn the aircraft. As most folks here have stated, the cadet was a very hot little plane, and according to what I was told, when my uncle Jim began pulling the plane out of the spin, it was traveling over 300 mph, and the stress ripped the fabric under the left wing. It was a very frightening experience, but he and the examiner landed safely.
Uncle Jim became an Army Air Core instructor with the start of the war, and his planes were impounded, with their engines removed and locked in a separate building. I'm not certain about the course of the events at this point, but apparently somewhere along the way, he sold his Cadet, whether to the government, or a private owner, I don't know. In any case, following the war, he decided to return to flying, and place an order for the first civilian Culver Cadet scheduled to be produced following the war. According to the story that my father told me, When this Cadet, in its civilian trim, was wheeled out, the company test pilot and the president of the company took it up for its first flight, to celebrate the company's return to peace time production. They attempted to spin the aircraft, the fabric under one of the wings ripped. This time the wing of the brand new aircraft failed, and both men were killed. According to this story, the company folded shortly there after, and my uncle Jim decided that, between this incident, and the growing costs of maintenance and fuel, to stop flying. It is an interesting story, but perhaps someone who knows more about the history of the Culver company can help me to sort out the facts from the myth. I will be passing the story on to my ten year old daughter, but I would like her to have the complete, and if possible, correct story. Thanks, Jeff Altman 08/28/2006 @ 07:04 [ref: 14011] |
| Franklyn E. Dailey Jr. Wilbraham, MA | I was the Project Coordinator for VX-2 at Chinco 1951-53. An e-mail friend states that Bill Coons was looking for drone info. I arrived at VX-2 just as the TD2C was being phased out. The Exec. a big guy specialized in that a/c, and on hot days, represented too much weight to get that a/c off the ground even on the long runway. I helped test F6F-5Ks, and flew as Chase 2 and a couple of times as Chase 1 in F8Fs to take drones out over the Atlantic to use as targets for the USS Mississippi's developmental Terrier battery. Another mission was to configure F6F a/c as drones for carrier launches into the train tunnels on the Korean Peninsula. That O-in-C, who was not attached to VX-2 but was a "customer'" for our work, is still living. He is a Naval Academy classmate of mine named Larry Kurtz. The radio control/autopilot ground ops officer for VX-2 during my tenure is still living in California. He is not an e-mailer but has snail mailed me to contribute to my book on instrument flying from his experience in the Aleutians in the 1930s. His name is Lee DiNapoli. Mr. Coons may already have been in touch with those gentlemen.
I have written some on the subject of drone ops especially to acknowledge that the German Luftwaffe's glider bombs had all the relevant radio control and autopilot technology demonstrated in offensive ops in the Med at least as early as 1943 where I had earlier served as a DD gunnery officer. My website is www.daileyint.com for draft versions of my writings which later became published books. Frank Dailey Jr. 12/26/2004 @ 12:07 [ref: 8968] |
| William Grinnell Traverse, MI | I was in US Navy Gropac 7 on Engebi Island of Eniwetok Atoll in the Marshall Group, at the time the Task Force left for the invasion of the Marianas.It was sad to watch about four Culver Cadets shot down as part of the fleets AA
practice on their way past our base.The drones took of from MAG 22's airsrip on Engebi and were controled from the back seat of an SNJ.Bill G. 12/03/2004 @ 12:11 [ref: 8774] |
| Phil Garey Grants Pass, OR | I was in Basic Military Training at Shepherd AAF at Wichita Falls, Texas in the fall/winter of 1943. There were several Culver Cadets there and I saw them taxiing around the ramp from time to time. They were painted bright red. I have no idea what the AAF was using them for. 11/28/2004 @ 23:06 [ref: 8732] |
| Bud Middleton Tarpon Springs, FL | NAAS Chincoteague, VA was my first duty station after I finished AE School in Millington, TN In July of 1949. I was assigned to Squadron VX2. I was reassigned from the elect shop to the twidget shop where I had the electrical responsibility for checking the remote control on the F6Fs that were rigged for drone. We had a few TD2 rigged for drone as well. I arrived on Pony Penning day and was given a liberty pass. I went over but there wasn't much going on. I told my folks that I was fighting the battle of Iwo Chinco. The mosquitoes seemed about as big as the TD2s and the evening fogging with DDT was some experience. We had a good group and shared the hanger with another squadron that received air drop rockets that they took out on PBYs for launch as I recall. We had a good group but it was so damed isolated that I put in for a transfer to anywhere. In the summer of 1950 I was transfered to a reformed squadron of Corsairs in NAAS Oceana, VA. I Spent the remainder of my hitch with VF-42. My buddy and I used to hitch hike to Cambridge,MD for liberty 90miles away but it was good liberty since we were the only sailors. It was great liberty. Several of my squadron were also transfered to VF-42. Chincoteague was interesting duty but it was not good duty for a young single sailor. The closet I have come to it since was several years ago I took the bridge tunnel up US 13 and saw T's corner which was where the bus was to drop me off. Fortunately I encountered a sailor in a truck that was based at Chincoteague and he said it would be best if I got my seabag from the bus and rode with him to the base which I did. 07/31/2004 @ 21:23 [ref: 7951] |
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