Information in English below

Almennur fróðleikur um Aeronca Chief flugvélar:

Aeronca Aircraft Company var stofnað í Ohio í Bandaríkjunum árið 1929.  Fyrsta flugvélin sem þetta fyrirtæki framleiddi var Aeronca C-2 sem gjarnan var kölluð Baðkarið Fljúgandi.  C-2 vélin seldist í tölverðu magni, og var ein fyrsta flugvélin sem var framleidd beinlínis sem einkaflugvél í Bandaríkjunum.  Fram að því höfðu flestar vélar sem einkaflugmenn notuðu verið leyfar frá fyrri heimsstyrjöldinni.  Næsta vél sem Aeronca framleiddi, og náði útbreiðslu, var Aeronca Scout sem kom fram á sjónarsviðið árið 1937.  Scout vélin var síðar þróuð í Aeronca Chief og Super Chief.  Á árum seinni heimsstyrjaldarinnar smíðaði Aeronca kennsluflugvélar sem voru byggðar á Super Chief vélunum.

Þegar líða fór á seinni heimsstyrjöldina, greip um sig ákveðið æði hjá framleiðendum einkaflugvéla.  Þeir sáu fyrir sér gríðarlegan markað fyrir einkaflugvélar þegar allir flugmennirnir sem þjálfaðir höfðu verið fyrir herinn kæmu heim.  Allir vildu fá hluta af þeirri köku, og þar á meðal Aeronca.

Árið 1945 settu þeir á markað vél sem var kölluð 7AC Champion (oft kölluð Champ), sem var tveggja sæta flugvél þar sem sætin voru hvort fyrir aftan annað.  Þessi vél var dúk klædd stélhjólsvél ætluð til flugkennslu og einkaflugs.  Árið 1946 kom svo 11AC Chief fram á sjónarsviðið, og átti þessi vél ekkert sameiginlegt með vél með sama nafni frá því fyrir stríð.  Seinni Chief vélin var þróun á 7AC vélinni og var um það bil 80% hluta í vélunum þeir sömu, en nánast eini munurinn á vélunum var að Chief var með sætin hlið við hlið.  Aeronca Chief var í framleiðslu fram til 1950 og voru framleidd um það bil 2300 stykki.

     Information in English:

The history of TF-LOA:

TF-LOA was produced in 1946 but was first registered in Iceland on the 30th of July 1997. Before that, it had been registered in the US, but at the moment nothing is known about it´s service there. The aircraft has been owned by Sturla Snorrason since 1997. 

A brief history of Aeronca Chief aircraft:

The Aeronca Aircraft Company was formed in 1929 in Ohio.  The first aircraft the new company produced was the Aeronca C-2 (called the Flying Bathtub) introduced in 1929.  The Flying Bathtub sold reasonably well, and was one of the first purpose built general aviation aircraft in the US.  Aircraft available to private flyers up to that point had mostly been leftovers from world war one. The next model built by the company to sell reasonably well, was the Aeronca Scout of 1937. It was later developed into the Chief and Super Chief. During the second world war, Aeronca produced trainers based on the Chief.

As the second world war was drawing to a close, the American light aircraft industry was in turmoil as most of the manufacturers saw a market for tens of thousands of light aircraft when all the pilots trained by the military returned home. Aeronca certainly wanted a piece of that cake.

In 1945 they marketed a brand new light aircraft called the 7AC Champion (usually called the Champ), which was a two seat tandem training/sport aircraft.  It a tailwheeled aircraft of conventional design clad with fabric. In 1946, the 11AC Chief came on the market, but this Chief had nothing in common with the pre-war aircraft of the same name. The new Chief was a development of the Champ, with side by side seating but otherwise basically the same, even to the extent of having about 80% parts commonality. The 11AC was in production until 1950 and during it´s time in production about 2300 examples were built.