Spartan Executive – Timeless Classic! Review, History and Specs!

In this video, we review Spartan Executive, one of the classic airplanes that showed amazing performance and comfort levels compared to other small airplanes of that time. Spartan Executive 7W and 12W were some of the fastest business aircraft of their time and in this video, we tell a history of the Spartan Aircraft and review the specs, design, and development of the Spart 7 and 12W and check how it compares to planes like Beechcraft Staggerwing and other executive aircraft of that time.

Chapters:
00:00 Intro
00:58 History Of Spartan Aircraft
03:15 Design Of Spartan Executive
04:22 Performance
05:42 Spartan Executive Price
06:51 From 7W to 12W
08:05 Outro

[rvrrunner]

In 1966 to 1967 I attended the Spartan School Of Aeronautics in Tulsa, OK and obtained an FAA Airframe and Powerplant (A&P) license. I never knew of the previous history of Spartan aircraft. Thank you for this video.

[chrisberlin]

Private pilot since 1987 here…the aircraft of my dreams is a PBY Catalina…ive often thought of literally living out of it as it is plenty big enough to reconfigure into sleeping quarters etc. Land on water or terra firma and sleep! How cool would that be??? What a beautiful plane…;)

[elosogonzalez]

Even if you have very deep pockets, you'd be hard pressed to find one for sale. I have personnelly flown or have flown in 7 different Soartans. As much as I love the airplane, I really miss those generous friends that shared their love with me. So many of these have made it across the pond now, so they are extremely rare in the U.S. now. GREAT, TIMELESS AIRPLANE.😊

[rocketyler]

The Spartan 7W was not a monocoque airframe, it was a truss and metal shell structure. The shape of the fuselage was completely non-structural.

[ronjones]

Thank you for this history lesson. I just subscribed.

[stonebear]

Dream bird off the shelf: couple of options. Diamond DA62, if it's gotta be a single probably a TBM 960... or maybe a VisionJet...

Dream bird built bespoke: A Prandtl-D planform flying wing. 36-38' wingspan. All carbon fibre honeycomb; that construction technique - and the landing gear design - from a Dark Aero One. (Hafta beef it up a little, b/c this won't be a single.). 2x Rotax 916is mounted pusher on the trailing edge of the wing. Blended fuselage centered on the forward spar, which is itself not too far forward of CG; four seats, back seats face aft. Fuel tanks behind. Carbon-fibre-reinforced titanium firewalls between cabin and tanks and between tanks and engines. Enough fuel to fly at MCT for eight hours. Heat-pump-based climate control. Oxygen for all seats.

If I'm lucky I get to build a model, because both time and money.

[jercas]

I'm restoring a 1951 Spartanette tandem trailer. The trailers built by the same builder of these planes. The really interesting part of the restoration is noting the way the trailer is assembled exactly like the plane. Riveted aluminum skin monocoque construction with beautiful bir ch interior. All wood joinery is assembled using tongue & groove method allowing for movement while the trailer is rolling. All in all; it's a very impressive testament to aeronautic engineering.

[brent]

Just saw one of these at the Mankato MN fly in. I can only imagine the pockets deep enough to keep it in that beautiful of flying condition.

[carlmclelland]

The Executive was one of my Dad's most favorite planes. (He was a Marine Corps fighter pilot in WWII and Korea). A plane from that era that I've flown, albeit decades ago now, was the Staggerwing Beech. Like the Spartan, Beech did it right.

[jimgolden]

$1 in 1936 is equivalent to $22.55 today. I just looked it up. So $25K in 1936 is about $564k today. I like the Executive. Saw some at the Arlington Washington EAA fly in. I have a Bonanza but would love a Spartan :)

[v.e.]

I would give a gonad to fly a Beech Staggerwing -- just something about that biplane that hits my pilot's heart. I'm currently in the process of making an RC model of one and its been a challenge cutting all the bits and pieces out of balsa and thin plywood.

[stonebear]

USD 25k in 1936 is today a tick over half a mil. Considering that a new G36 Bonanza is nearly a full seven figures? yeah. It's the built-to-order part that makes it truly exclusive.

[N]

It looks like my Spartan (s/n 17) shows up a bunch of times in this video, sometimes with the old green paint trim and others with the current blue trim. Is this an update of an earlier version of this video? Some of the narrative seems quite familiar.

[captbart]

Love the plane but I lean more toward the Cessna 195. Planes I fell in love with as a kid; the Sea Bee (Jungle Jim’s bird), the Cessna Bearcat - T50(Sky King liked his 310 but not quite as well), and the Bell 47 from Whirlybirds. Finally the Cessna 170 from various science fiction movies and the Goose from Tales of the Golden Monkey. Sigh, at my age I’d have trouble with a C-150.

[theresacaron]

Katmai 182 with the 350 HP would be my dream bird.

[mothmagic]

I think the 7W and the Globe Swift were the most beautiful light aircraft of their time.

[philliplopez]

OV- 10 bronco, the ultimate off-road camper . A slide out fold open deck and a bikini top.

[TRabbit]

Cozy MkIV, with a Higgs Falcon (FI 250hp).

[fantabuloussnuffaluffagus]

$25, 000 in 1936 is ~$500, 000 today. So the Spartan cost a bit more than a 172 does today. Clearly things have changed. I'm thinking a modern equivalent would be the Epic E1000 or TBM 9 whatever.

[hotrodray]

First time that I've ever heard that they had air conditioning... And a refrigerator.