While employed as an airline pilot,
Captain Tom Cassutt of Huntington, Long Island, designed and
built a small single-seat racing aircraft known as the
Cassutt Special #1 in 1954. Based on Steve Wittman's
"Buster" design, the Cassutt Special won the 1958 National
Air Racing Championships. In 1959, Cassutt completed a
smaller aircraft along the same lines known as the Cassutt
Special #2. Plans of both aircraft were made available to
amateur constructors and as a result many Cassutt Specials
were, and are still, being built.
The Cassutt was a single-place,
cantilevered mid-wing Formula One sport racer. It was a
simple to construct steel-tube, wood and fabric airplane
stressed for aerobatics to 12 G's. This very popular racing
design is inexpensive yet it offers high performance. The
fuselage, engine mount, tail and ailerons are constructed of
steel tubing. The wing is all-wood with the spar a simple
flat piece of spruce laminations. The 18 ribs are identical
and of spruce truss construction. The wing skin is thin
plywood.
Specifications:
Wingspan: 14' 11"
Length: 16'
Engine: 85hp C-85 Continental
Top Speed: 230 mph
Weight: 526 lbs