Franklin PS-2

Taxaco Eaglet

The Franklin PS-2 of the 1930’s won three of the first four U.S. Championships. It gave a start in soaring to notables such as Richard du pont, Warren Eaton, Floyd Sweet, Stan Smith and many others. The designation PS-2 was coined for the intended function of the glider, a primary and a secondary too. The ship has no spoilers, wood/fabric wings, and a steel-tube/fabric fuselage. Several cross-country tow experiments were made with the ship. The long-wing prototype, the Taxaco Eaglet was towed from California to Elmira by Frank Hawks in 1931. That ship is now at the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum. The 1934 Lustig Skytrain experiment had Jack O’Meara, R.E. Franklin and Stan Smith towed nose to tail behind a towplane, starting in New York, dropping a glider in Philadelphia one in Baltimore and ending in Washington. In a more normal application, Ralph Barnaby directed a U.S. Navy primary flight training experiment in Pensacola, FL using PS-2’s in 1934. The National Soaring Museum has two examples and another (the last of the 6 acquired for the U.S. Navy experiment) belongs to the National Museum of Naval Aviation at Pensacola, FL.

Wing span: 10.98m / 36ft
Wing area: 6.72sq.m / 180sq.ft
Empty Weight: 100kg / 220lb
Payload: 82kg / 180lb
Gross Weight: 182kg / 400lb
Wing Load: 10.88kg/sq.m / 2.2lb/sq.ft
Water Ballast: 0
L/DMax: 15
MinSink: 0.76 m/s / 2.5 fps / 1.48 kt
No. of Seats: 1
Aspect ratio: 7.2