The Fleet 50 freighter was an attempt by Canadian manufacturer fleet aircraft to make a general
utility and transport plane. In the 1930s Canada was experiencing a mining boom, and while several
aircraft types had been imported for use as bush transports, Fleet wanted to develop a
Canadian-built aircraft for this role, and thus give some much-needed expansion to the post-great
depression aviation industry in Canada. They set out to build a twin engine biplane
that could haul large cargo loads, large being both in weight and in physical size. Design work
began in 1936, and not long into this process the decision was made to design it as both a landplane
and a floatplane, owing to a) Canada’s large coastline, and b) the enormous quantity of lakes.
The fuselage structure was constructed of welded steel tubes and mostly clad in fabric,
the exception being the nose which was constructed as a semi-monocoque and clad in duraluminium.
The fuselage had room for two crew members and a large quantity of cargo, and to improve logistics
on the ground between four to five large doors and a roof-mounted chain hoist were installed.
The wings had an equal span, but the lower wing was built as an inverted gull, and its possible
the designers had taken inspiration from the Bellanca Aircruiser – which we covered in a recent
video – but there is no solid evidence to back that up, though they do look somewhat similar.
The centre sections of the wings were of all metal construction with a stressed metal skin,
and the outer wing sections were constructed of wood and clad in fabric,
with the sole exception of the leading edge which was also covered in a metal skin.
The prototype aircraft was designated as the Fleet 50J or the model 46k depending
on what source you’re looking at, and this was completed with two 7 cylinder,
285hp Jacobs L5MB radial engines. These were mounted on the upper wing, and were supported
by no less than six struts connecting to both the fuselage and wing itself, and the prototype flew
for the first time on February the 22nd 1938. From the beginning, things did not go well for the
Fleet 50. The first test flights revealed that it was woefully underpowered -not an ideal situation
for a transport that would operate in and around the Canadian Rockies- which prompted the upgrade
to a 330hp version of the Jacobs engine. While this was going on, Four more aircraft
were being built, and these were completed as the Fleet 50K. Some of these went to private owners at
first, as bush transports, and at least one was used as a demonstrator. At lease two of the five
planes built were also modified to be able to carry up to ten passengers in relative comfort,
as even the improved Jacobs engines were found to still be too underpowered for heavy cargo
transport, and it was thought that passenger transport would be a good alternative.
However, any hopes of marketing the plane as a passenger transport went up in flames
-literally- when the demonstrator sent to the United States caught fire in
front of a group of officials and potential buyers and was burned to a crisp.
Back over in Canada, a series of incidents and crashes – courtesy of the underpowered engines
– had left a bit of a poor first impression of the Fleet 50. However, despite a tendency to
want to fall from the sky, its large fuselage and multiple loading doors were highly praised,
and it was considered one of the easiest cargo planes to both load and unload. It was also one of
the first aircraft ever to have a nose door, which gave access to a cargo space under the cockpit
that ran the whole length of the fuselage. The Royal Canadian Air Force acquired two of
the aircraft for a brief period of time. These were first used as paratroop training aircraft,
but then later on in 1943 one was used as an air ambulance and as a floatplane trainer. However,
the RCAF also found them to be dangerously underpowered and these were eventually sold.
In general, the experiences of those operating the Fleet 50 was short and painful, mostly due
to the poor engine performance and high operating costs. As a result of the underpowered engines,
the attrition rate of incidents quickly caught up and one by one the planes were wrecked.
One floatplane model was sold from the RCAF to the Labrador Mining and Exploration Company in 1944,
where it operated for a grand total of nine days before it crashed onto a beach – after which ti
was abandoned. This trend was then repeated when the RCAF sold its other plane to Mexico
that same year, who only managed 18 months of operations before it too was crashed. The
Fourth 50K Freighter, having been leased by Fleet Aircraft for short times to a number of operators,
eventually sold it to Austin Airways in 1945… which lost the aircraft to fire in 1946.
And so, when the last Fleet 50 went out of service in 1946…it was also the only Fleet
50 to go out of service in 1946, or at all for that matter, as the rest were all gone.
The remains of one aircraft, the one that was crashed onto a beach and then abandoned, can be
found in the Canadian Aviation and Space Museum, but aside from that they are mostly forgotten.
Had the Fleet 50 been equipped with a more powerful engine from the start,
things may have turned out differently, but it wasn’t, and so ends its story.
As always thank you all very much for watching, and a big thank