Curtiss - Wright C - 76 Caravan The Curtiss - Wright C - 76 Caravan ( company designation CW - 27 ) was an all - wood military transport aircraft . The C - 76 was intended as a substitute standard aircraft in the event of expected wartime shortages of light alloys . However , both prototype and production aircraft failed several critical flight and static tests , and after U . S . aluminum production proved sufficient for wartime defense requirements , orders for the C - 76 were cancelled and production terminated . Design and development . In 1941 , Curtiss - Wright was contracted by the United States Army Air Forces to design and construct an all - wood military transport aircraft , with performance specifications meeting or exceeding that of the C - 47 Skytrain then in service . The Curtiss - Wright CW - 27 was designed by Curtiss - Wright ' s chief designer George A . Page , Jr . as a high - wing , twin - engine , cargo transport aircraft , utilizing plywood construction with a tricycle undercarriage . Though the British de Havilland Mosquito had successfully employed a ply construction using a balsa wood core and birch hardwood exterior , Curtiss - Wright engineers , using research provided by Forest Products Laboratory , rejected this approach , insisting instead on a ply construction of dense mahogany , which greatly increased the plane ' s weight . At Curtiss ' request , Army Materiel Command laid in large supplies of mahogany , and a number of furniture manufacturers , including the Baldwin Piano Company , were subcontracted to build components for the plane , which would be assembled at Curtiss - Wright ' s new defense plant in Louisville , Kentucky . A radial engine was mounted on each wing , and the aircraft was capable of carrying 23 personnel or a cargo payload . The Caravan had a nose section that swung out to the right so out - size loading could be done , including a jeep or small artillery pieces . The original contract called for 11 YC - 76 pre - production aircraft , and the first aircraft would be built and tested at Curtiss - Wright ' s St . Louis , Missouri Division plant . Subsequently , orders for five C - 76 production aircraft and nine revised YC - 76A were placed by the USAAF , with line production to commence at the Curtiss - Wright plant in Louisville as well as a Higgins Aircraft factory in New Orleans , Louisiana . To keep the plywood flexible during construction the factory was kept hot and damp . The prototype YC - 76 first flew on May 1 , 1943 . Only five production aircraft were completed in 1943 : three from Curtiss - Wright ' s St . Louis Division , and two from a new plant at Louisville , Kentucky , which was finished in May 1942 . The Higgins Aircraft Co . contract was cancelled by the Army on August 3 , 1943 before the Higgins factory in New Orleans had been completed , and Higgins was awarded another contract to produce the C - 46 Commando . Operational history . The first flight of the YC - 76 prototype took place on May 3 , 1943 . The C - 76 proved severely underpowered from the start , with a cruise speed of 160 mph , a service ceiling of 22 , 600 feet , a range of only 750 miles , and a cargo capacity of under 8 , 000 lbs . Colonel J . W . Sessums , a USAAF officer at the Air Materiel Command at Wright Field , later related : Compared to other cargo aircraft then coming into service , the C - 76 was already obsolescent , even allowing for its ' war - priority ' method of construction . In addition , the C - 76 failed a number of critical flight tests . It was discovered in testing that the C - 76 was unstable when not carrying a cargo load ; in order to obtain a stable center of gravity , the plane had to be ballasted beyond its maximum permissible gross takeoff weight . At any speed , or in any gusting wind , the C - 76 ' s elevators would flap back and forth violently . The wing structure failed in eight separate static tests , sometimes with a load as low as 40 % of the wing ' s rated capacity . The wing failures were attributed by some sources to the failure of the fasteners used to secure the wood components of the aircraft . Numerous additional fasteners , metal stirrups , and wood ply reinforcements were added to the structure in an effort to strengthen it , thereby increasing the plane ' s overall weight . At the Louisville plant , Curtiss line workers would later recall two C - 76 production planes that were kept for some time in the assembly building , with one plane cannibalized to keep the other in flyable condition . On 10 May 1943 , the first YC - 76 constructed at the Louisville , Kentucky plant , " 43 - 86918 " , lost its tail unit at 1729 hrs . due to lack of " forgotten " securing bolts during test flight , crashing at Okolona , Kentucky , killing three Curtiss test crew , pilot Ed Schubinger , co - pilot John L . " Duke " Trowbridge , and engineer Robert G . Scudder . As war priority measures designed to increase aluminum production proved successful , the feared shortage of light alloys never materialized . Moreover , USAAF Training Command had begun to forward widespread complaints of insufficient service life on their wooden - winged Fairchild PT - 19 primary trainers when exposed to high heat in training bases located in Texas and Florida . The War Department cancelled its orders for the C - 76 on 3 August 1943 . The Sara Clark Collection , National Archives , Record Group 342 , Box 2719 , document the disposition of the 25 YC - 76 aircraft as Articles # 1 , # 3 , # 4 , and # 5 were placed in the " Z " category , ZC - 76 , due to the poor gluing conditions and assembly procedures by subcontractors found through a Material Division inspection of the subcontractors work . These aircraft were assigned to the Technical Training Command and used for ground purposes only . Article # 2 was destroyed in static testing at Wright Field . Article # 6 was lost in a crash . Article # 9 was under repair , but repairs were stopped and the airplane placed in Class 26 , non - operational status . Air Service Command operated 12 YC - 76 ' s on a service test basis for nine months and found that they required excessive man hours to maintain . It was suggested that these be placed into Class 26 or Survey . The final disposition of the aircraft as of October 1 , 1945 , by letter of the Air Technical Service Command ; 1 - Washout upon delivery from factory , 5 - Class 26 , 10 - Survey , 1 - Condemned , 8 - Reconstruction Finance Corp . to be sold as surplus . In the interim , the Curtiss - Wright plants at Buffalo , New York and Louisville , Kentucky went over to full production of the C - 46 Commando . USAAF Materiel Command later estimated the entire C - 76 project cost the U . S . government $ 400 million dollars and several months in lost production time .