View of an American AA-5 Traveler, F-GITZ, taxiing, before taking off from Manston, during the Kent Strut charity fly-in, Thanet, Kent
The Grumman American AA-5 series is a family of American all-metal, four-seat, light aircraft used for touring and training. The line includes the original American Aviation AA-5 Traveler, the Grumman American AA-5 Traveler, AA-5A Cheetah, and AA-5B Tiger, the Gulfstream American AA-5A Cheetah and AA-5B Tiger, the American General AG-5B Tiger, and the Tiger Aircraft AG-5B Tiger. The final variant of the AA-5 line was the AA-5B Tiger. The Tiger was designed by Grumman engineers and was first produced in late 1974 as the 1975 model. The Tiger was the outcome of the same redesign work on the AA-5 Traveler that resulted in the 150 hp (110 kW) Cheetah and it was originally little more than the same aircraft with a Lycoming O-360-A4K 180 hp (130 kW) engine, resulting in a 139-knot (257 km/h) cruise speed. Gross weight was increased from the AA-5/AA-5A's 2,200 lb (1,000 kg) to 2,400 lb (1,100 kg) on the Tiger. Externally the Tiger looked much like the AA-5 Traveler and AA-5A Cheetah so once again Grumman's marketing department came up with a distinctive decal package to differentiate the design – this time a "galloping tiger". While the earlier AA-1s and AA-5s did not change much from year to year the AA-5B Tiger underwent almost continual improvement. As with the AA-5A, the AA-5B was continued in production by Gulfstream when they purchased Grumman's American division. Gulfstream ceased production of all piston-engined aircraft in 1979 and the highly successful Tiger design went out of production after 1323 aircraft had been delivered.
Size: 5616px × 3744px
Location: Manston Airport, Manston, Thanet, Kent
Photo credit: © John Gaffen / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: -gitz, -metal, -seat, aa-5, ag-5, ag-5b, aircraft, airport, aluminum, american, association, aviation, bonded, brain, branch, canopy, charity, corporation, cowling, dihedral, fly-, fuselage, general, grumman, history, honeycomb, hundreds, international, kent, light, manston, martha, martin, museum, nose, raf, research, sliding, split, strut, taxiing, thanet, tiger, traveler, trust, tumour, wing, wings
