Drawing – Paul Matt – Aeronca LB Online Sale

The Aeronca L was a 1930s American designed cabin type monoplane. It was built in limited numbers by Aeronca Aircraft Company. It differed significantly from other Aeronca airplane designs in that it used a radial engine powerplant, streamlining, and a cantilevered low wing.

The Model L was the designation for cantilever (no external struts for bracing) low-wing monoplane. The L models featured side-by-side seating in a completely enclosed cabin. The design reflected the attention being paid to aerodynamics during the period, which in this model included large wheel spats for the fixed undercarriage and a cowl ring for the engine. The aircraft was of mixed-construction with a welded steel fuselage, and wings with spruce spars and ribs that was covered with fabric.

Aeronca s engines proved to be inadequate, so the company turned to small, radial type engines from other suppliers — particularly the Cincinnati engine manufacturer LeBlond.

The Model L was mainly flown by private pilot owners. The airplane was not a big seller. Difficulty with engine sources — and a destructive flood in 1937 at Aeronca s factory at Cincinnati s Lunken Airport — eventually stopped the aircraft’s development program. As a result, Aeronca went back to its high-wing light aircraft manufacturing.

With the end of sales to Aeronca, LeBlond sold their engine-manufacturing operation to an Aeronca-rival planemaker, Kansas City-based Rearwin Aircraft. The then resumed production of the engines under the brand name Ken-Royce, largely for use in Rearwin airplanes.

Designations