1000AIRCRAFTPHOTOS.COM

History Brief, info by Jack McKillop, edited by Johan Visschedijk

November 30, 2007

Chase / Stroukoff

 
Michael Stroukoff was born on January 29, 1883 in Ekaterinoslav (presently known as Dnepropetrovsk) in the Ukraine. He graduated from the Kiev Polytechnic Institute in 1908, served in WW I, finally ranking as a captain and earning the Order of Saint George (Fourth Class) for bravery. He emigrated to the USA in 1933and was initially involved in the construction business.

Michael Stroukoff became the president and chief engineer of the Chase Aircraft Company, founded in February 1943 in New York, New York. On February 28, 1944, the USAAF awarded Chase a contract for two wooden Model MS-1 gliders, the 16-seat XCG-14 (44-90989), which made its first flight on January 4, 1945, and the 24-seat XCG-14A (44-90990) which made its first flight on October 16, 1945. Neither went into production.

In late 1946, the company moved to Mercer County Airport in Ewing Township, New Jersey. The performance of the two XCG-14s led to a new contract signed on January 3, 1947 for a larger XCG-18A-CA all-metal glider; this contract was later amended to include a second prototype (46-506). The first of these 32-seat gliders took to the air in December, 1947. One feature of these gliders was an upswept rear fuselage; this feature was eventually developed into an hydraulically-operated loading ramp a shape that remains as a characteristic of most military transports to this day. In the 1948 revision of type symbols, “CG” was eliminated and replaced by the letter “G” and these two aircraft became XG-18As.

A second contract was signed on March 5, 1948 for five YG-18A-CA service test gliders (47-640 to 47-644) and two XG-20-CA gliders (47-786 and 47-787). The XG-20-CA could accommodate 60-troops and was the largest glider ever built in the U.S.

During the test and evaluation period for these aircraft, USAF opinion shifted from gliders to powered assault aircraft. As a result of this change, Chase installed two Pratt & Whitney 14-cylinder, two row, air-cooled R-2000 radial engines on the second service test YG-18A (47-641), which was redesignated YC-122-CA, and it made its first powered flight in November 1948. On August 12, 1949, the USAF ordered nine YC-122C-CAs (49-2879 to 49-2887) equipped with Wright 9-cylinder, single-row, air-cooled, 1,425 hp R-1820 radial engines. Most of these aircraft served with the 16th Troop Carrier Squadron, Assault, Light (Troop Carrier Squadron, Assault, Fixed Wing from November 1954), 316th Troop Carrier Group, Eighteenth Air Force, Tactical Air Command, from 1951 to 1955. This squadron was based at Sewart AFB, Smyrna, Tennessee from 1951 to November 1954 and Ardmore AFB, Ardmore, Oklahoma from November 1954 to July 1955.

Chase also modified the XG-20-CA gliders to meet the new USAF requirement. Chase installed two Pratt & Whitney 18-cylinder, twin-row, air cooled R-2800 radial engines on the first XG-20-CA (47-786); this aircraft was redesignated XC-123-CA and made its first flight on October 14, 1949. The second prototype (47-787) was equipped with four General Electric J-47-11 turbojets, was redesignated XC-123A-CA and made its first flight on April 21, 1951. The USAF was impressed with the radial engine prototype and on February 17, 1953, a contract was signed for five C-123Bs (52-1627 to 52-1631). Chase did not have the production capability and work force to build these aircraft so in May 1953, Henry J. Kaiser, owner of the Kaiser Manufacturing Company of Willow Run, Michigan, bought 49 percent of Chase Aircraft stock. The five C-123Bs were produced at Willow Run under the Chase name as C-123B-CNs.

In December 1950, the USAF had requested that the Fairchild Engine and Airplane Corporation of Hagerstown, Maryland, the manufacturer of the C-119 Flying Boxcar, enter into an agreement with Kaiser to build C-119Fs at the Willow Run facility. This had been accomplished and Kaiser intended to open a second production line to build the C-123Bs. However, there was a Congressional investigation in 1953 to determine why Fairchild Aircraft was able to build the C-119 for $380,000 each versus the $1.3 million Kaiser was charging. As a result of these investigations, the USAF cancelled Kaiser’s C-119F and C-123 contracts on June 24, 1953. The Air Force still wanted the C-123 and invited Consolidated-Vultee Aircraft, Lockheed Aircraft, North American Aviation, The Glenn L. Martin Company and Willys Motors (a subsidiary of Kaiser) to submit bids for the construction of the aircraft. Fairchild was not invited to bid but at the eleventh hour, they received permission to offer a fixed-cost bid which they did and won the contract to build 293 C-123Bs.

After the loss of the C-119 and C-123 contracts, Kaiser purchased the remaining stock of Chase and Michael Stroukoff formed Stroukoff Aircraft with most of the original work force (engineering, production and support), facilities and tooling at Mercer County Airport, New Jersey. Stroukoff produced four specialized versions of the C-123, which were used to explore short takeoff and landing (STOL) technology, although none of these aircraft went into production:

- The YC-123D (53-8068) was similar to the C-123B but employed a boundary-layer control system consisting of suction
  slots in the wing upper surfaces for additional lift and short take off and landing (STOL) performance.

- YC-123E (55-4031) was equipped with features known as the "Pantobase" system consisting of revised fuselage
  undersurfaces and underwing floats for operation from water, ice and snow.

- YC-134 (52-627) equipped with boundary-layer control and the installation of Wright 18-cylinder, twin row, air cooled
  R-3350-89A turbo-compound radial engines driving four-bladed propellers.

- YC-134A was the YC-134 equipped with the “Pantobase” system.

Despite sound financing, Stroukoff Aircraft never recovered from the C-123 contract loss and finally closed its doors completely in 1958. All of its future developmental data was destroyed and is lost. Michael Stroukoff died on January 5, 1974, in Princeton, New York.