- Design
- Operational history
- Popular culture
- Variants
- Specifications (AG-4 Crusader)
- References
- Bibliography
- External links
| name=AG-4 Crusader | image= | caption= }}{{Infobox Aircraft Type | type= | national origin=United States | manufacturer=American Gyro Company | designer=Thomas M. Shelton | first flight=1935 | introduced=1935 | retired= | status= | primary user= | more users= | produced= | number built= | program cost= | unit cost= | developed from= | variants with their own articles=
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The American Gyro AG-4 Crusader is a small twin engine aircraft. The aircraft was designed as the Shelton Flying Wing in 1933 by Thomas Miles Shelton.[1] DesignThe AG-4 was developed using wind tunnel tests. The American Gyro AG-4 Crusader is an aluminum skinned four place low-wing twin engine aircraft with fixed conventional landing gear, twin tail booms with individual rudders, and a teardrop shaped fuselage. The wing uses trailing edge flaps and 25 gallon fuel tanks are mounted in each wing root. Retractable landing gear were also tested on the model.[2] Operational historyThe prototype was painted a copper color with green leather seats. It was tested in 1935 at Denver Colorado.[3] The aircraft was funded from stock issued in the Crusader Aircraft Corporation, a parent of the American Gyro Company. The company folded in 1938 under securities fraud investigations before the Crusader could go into production[4] Popular cultureTootsietoy came out with a die-cast metal toy of the plane, No. 719 in its catalogue.[5] Hubley and Wyandotte also made toys based on the Shelton Flying Wing. Variants- American Gyro AG-4 Crusader
- American Gyro AG-6 Buccaner
A six place variant design powered by Menasco engines[6] Specifications (AG-4 Crusader) {{Aircraft specs
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|fuel capacity=50 gal
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References1. ^http://www.dmairfield.com/airplanes/NX14429/index.html
2. ^{{cite journal|title=none|magazine=AAHS Journal|date=Spring 2004|page=42}}
3. ^{{cite journal|magazine=Popular Science|date=August 1935|title=The American Gyro Crusader|author=E Stanton Brown}}
4. ^{{cite book|title=The Journal of Air Law , Volume 8|page=71}}
5. ^http://www.tootsietoys.info/Tootsietoys-Aircraft.html
6. ^{{cite book|title=Aerospace yearbook, Volume 18|publisher=Manufacturers Aircraft Association, Manufacturers Aircraft Association, Inc., New York, Aerospace Industries Association of America|page=268}}
Bibliography- Roca, Alexander Crusader: The Story of the Shelton Flying Wing, its Company, and its Creator Rare Birds Publishing; 1st edition (1989) {{ISBN|978-0962288609}}
External links- [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1xifECLKFc YouTube video of test flight]
4 : United States civil utility aircraft 1930–1939|Low-wing aircraft|Twin-boom aircraft|Aircraft first flown in 1935 |