Rockwell Commander 112
| Commander 112/114 | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Commander 112 | |
| Role | Four-seat cabin monoplane |
| National origin | United States |
| Manufacturer | Rockwell |
| First flight | 4 December 1970 |
| Introduction | 1972 |
The Rockwell Commander 112 is an American four-seat single-engined general aviation aircraft designed and built by North American Rockwell (later Rockwell International) starting in 1972. In 1976 they introduced the turbocharged 112TC and a version mounting a larger engine and other minor improvements as the Rockwell Commander 114. A total of approximately 1,000 examples of all models were produced before the production line shut down in 1980.
The rights to the design were sold to Commander Aircraft 1988. They improved the interior and made other minor upgrades to the Commander 114B series, released in 1992. Approximately 200 examples were produced before they shut down in 2002. Another attempt to begin production was made by Commander Premier who planned a Commander 115 series, however, as of 2016[update], financial issues had delayed production indefinitely.
In 1970 Rockwell's Aero Commander division developed a new line of aircraft that would span everything from the fixed-gear four-seat market to a retractable twin-engine six-seat design The first models of this lineup were two versions of a four-seat low-wing monoplane, the fixed tricycle landing gear Commander 111 and the retractable tricycle landing gear Commander 112. The 111 was marketed at $17,950 and 112 at $22,100. Only two prototype Commander 111s were built; the company decided that only the Commander 112 would go into production.
The design had a modern look and considerable interior room that set it apart from older designs like the Piper Cherokee and Beechcraft Bonanza. As one reviewer put it:
The design had been made to follow the newly released FAR Part 23 standards for light aircraft, which had an emphasis on gust response and fatigue mitigation. The resulting design boasted considerable strength, a fact that Rockwell marketed heavily. Unfortunately, this also had an impact on performance, and in spite of its clean lines the 112 was slightly slower than similar aircraft like the Piper Arrow.
A prototype Commander 112 crashed after the tail failed during testing, which led to a redesign of the tail unit. This delayed the delivery of the first production aircraft until late in 1972. It also led to changes that further increased the weight of the aircraft. This resulted it is being seriously underpowered; the 112 prototype was powered by a 180 hp (134 kW) Lycoming O-360 engine, this was replaced by a 200 hp (149 kW) IO-360 engine in production aircraft. Even with this engine there is widespread agreement that the aircraft was underpowered. Another annoyance was that the fibreglass composite doors did not fit well and tended to leak.
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