this took to long to finish..

(Anything that is just bolded is important information to know in order to fly the aircraft well)

history

One of the first aircraft created by the Taikav company, the TA-131 was a large, yet powerful, aircraft capable of 400-500+mph with its 4 massive radial engines, each producing 1347hp each.

design
The TA-131 was apart of a 6 year development, started in early 1949, and taking inspiration from the popular DC-3. High altitude speed was a major point that the designers were looking for, so they put the largest engine that the taikav company had at the time, the T-R-11a radial engine, producing 1200hp. 4 were put in the primary wings and though it was plenty of power, the taikav engineers wanted more from the engine, so they increased bore and compression and bumped the power up to 1347hp each. The interior was ment to be basic, easy for low end airline companies to start their fleet, by keeping price low. The cockpit and control is supposed to be easy for every level pilot, and instruments easy to read. With everything being so simple, and safety measures being not as they are today crashes were common for some small airlines who weren't as keen to have well trained pilots.

flight performance
Takeoff speed is very good, with full flaps it's at a steady 150mph (must have pitch full to see 150mph takeoff, with just flaps and full trim it's at around 250-260mph). Speed was also a factor the designers wanted upwards of 500mph at 20k ft, as well as good cruising speed (420+mph at 80% throttle at around 15-20k ft). With every aircraft there is one downfall to all the good and for the TA-131 it was a high stall speed with it at around 210-220mph. another problem is a softer than intended suspension but when on a good runway and landings are above stall speed it does not effect the landing (depending on how bad the lining up on the runway is you may need yaw to keep it on the runway, the tail wheel is custom so the turning is sharp at any speed, keep it in mind). There are 4 lights in the center of the instrument panel in the cockpit, white indicate weither landing gear is down or up (on when its down) and the blue is to indicate when the flaps are down. Control sticks and throttle sticks are fully functioning.

military use
though military use with this aircraft was scarce during its introduction, it quickly picked up as the Korean war broke out, and the US military as well as the small force from the newly formed Checkered Republic for paratrooper deployment, as well as limited cargo capabilities, all requiring slight variations to the design to allow for proper paratrooper drops and cargo unloading. In addition to cargo and paratrooper deployment, it also transported high ranking military officials to bases and other official capacities.

builders note
I normally put this at the end of the description but I thought I would overhaul how I do my descriptions, if your wondering. Anyway this was one of the hardest aircraft I have ever made, total time to build is upwards of 17-20 hours with another 3-4 hours of flight testing, so yea it took quite awhile, the hardest was the nose, it's not perfectly circular but it's close enough, my next plane will be much better, on the triple teaser I did it's the bi plane. I am so happy on how it came out and love the result, cockpit positioning is a bit bad but there's some cameras for the pilot/co pilot seats which are much better.

controls

Normal flight controls
VTOL DOWN- flaps
AG1- passenger doors

gallery

these types of incidents were common on this aircraft due to poor training