The Swallow LT65 or LT-65 was a trainer aircraft marketed by the Swallow Airplane Company in 1940.[1] Swallow purchased the prototype from its builder, Dale Aircraft,[2] but was unable to start manufacturing it before the demands of wartime production changed priorities for the company.[2] [3] This was Swallow's final attempt to produce an aircraft.[4]
The LT65 was a conventional, low-wing-monoplane with seating for the pilot and instructor in tandem, fully enclosed under an extensively glazed canopy.[5] The wings were braced to the fuselage by struts and wires, and by wires to the main units of the fixed, tailwheel undercarriage.[5] Those units were fully enclosed by large spats.[5] Power was supplied by a piston engine in the nose driving a tractor propeller.[5] It had a conventional tail.[5]
The fuselage, empennage, and center sections of the wings were constructed from welded steel tube, and the wing outer panels had spruce spars and ribs.[5] [6] The whole aircraft was covered in fabric.[5]
Although Swallow's marketing of 1940 described the LT65 as "new" and "no re-hash of an old model",[7] they had purchased the manufacturing rights and the prototype from the Dale Aircraft Company of Pomona, California,[2] The Dale Aircraft Company logo is partially visible on Swallow's promotional picture of the type.[7]
The first iteration of the design, the Dale A, registration NX18972 (later, NC18972) was powered by a 40hp Continental A-40 engine.[2]
When the 50hp Menasco M-50 engine became available, designer Harold Dale built a second prototype to take advantage of it.[2] This was called the Dale Air-Dale M-50,[2] [8] registration NC21736,[2] and Dale entered a business partnership with George M. Frohlich and Roland J. Brownsberger to market it.[2] [8] It was offered in open-cockpit and canopied versions.[6]
Swallow bought this second prototype and the manufacturing rights to the design, hoping to market it to flying schools with a more powerful 65hp Continental engine,[2] dual controls, and provision for dual flight and engine instruments.[5] It was marketed as being easy to fly, maintain, and overhaul.[5] In 1941, Swallow was preparing for production of the type in a new factory with 40000square feet of floorspace.[9] However, the outbreak of World War II disrupted the civil aviation market, and diverted resources and manufacturing capacity.[2] [3] [4] Swallow never sold any LT65s,[2] and spent the war years training aircraft mechanics[3] and manufacturing components for Boeing bombers.[4]