WEEJET

All material on this page gratefully shared from the archives of Johan Visschedijk.

The Weejet is the brainchild of Harold and Eleanor Dale, who both wanted to have the "ideal" aircraft and design it by themselves. Harold was an aircraft designer by profession, he designed the Weejet during the evenings while being project engineer on the North American Aviation F-100. Eleanor, with a college math minor and a good sense of business, was helping out.

Their "ideal" aircraft was one that had good slow flight characteritics, yet could cruise at 350 mph. You also wanted to be seated ahead of the wing, this favored a small jet. The availability of the 880 lbst thrust turbojet Turbomeca Marboré made the concept feasible.

The safest approach to the completion of the design was to submit it to the Civil Aeronautics Administration. Once with the type certificate in hand, they would have a marketable product and investors would be sought.

In February 1952, the application for a type certificate was made, and the name WeeJet 800 officially registered. By then, Dale-Air Engineering was given several smaller research and development jobs, including certified tip tanks for the Navion.

A local aircraft parts manufacturer got interested in the project, and two and a half year later the first prototype was built.

The entire design and certification paperwork was done by Dale and Eleanor on their spare time only, and the prototype was built by 5 men.

On March 30, 1956 the WeeJet made its first flight with Dale at the controls.

After most of the flight testing was completed, the Navy had become interested in the aircraft. A demonstration to P. River (Patuxtent) was scheduled. However, the day before departure for the Navy demonstration, the WeeJet had been conducting spin testings. Until then they were proceeding with success, but the pilot had inadvertently activated the trim tab to the full nose-down position, and in trying to recover, lost control and had to bail out to his safety.

Further WeeJets were expected to be built in 1957, but it didn't happen.
DIMENSIONS    
Span 28 ft 0 in 8.53 m
Length 24 ft 6 in 7.47 m
Height 6 ft 8 in 2.03 m
Wing area 150 sqft 13.94 m2
Tail area 45.5 sqft 4.23 m2
WEIGHTS, LOADINGS    
Max. take-off weight 4,541 lb 2060 kg
Empty weight 2,481 lb 1125 kg
Fuel capacity 132 US Gal 500 l
Max. wing loading 25.5 lb/sq ft 124.5 kg/m2
POWERPLANT    
Powerplant 1 Continental J69-T-9
Take-off thrust 920 lb 417 kg
PERFORMANCE    
Maximum level speed 334 mph 537 km/h
283 mph 456 km/h
Cruise altitude 15,000 ft 4570 m
Stall speed at LDG weight 64.5 mph 104 km/hr
Rate of climb 2,200 ft/min 670 m/min
Time to 20,000ft 11.1 min
Service ceiling 35,000 ft 10,670 m
Takeoff to 50 ft 1,800 ft 550 m
Sea level endurance 1.72 hr

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Last update : 13MAY04