Cassutt Special
The Cassutt Special was drawn up in 1951 by former TWA captain Tom Cassutt purely to win Formula One pylon races, contests that send tiny, 100-horsepower monoplanes around a tight closed course wingtip to wingtip at just 50 feet. Its fabric-covered steel-tube fuselage and plywood-over-wood wings kept weight and cost low enough for amateur builders to complete one at home, and the design won the 1958 National Air Racing Championships. Because Cassutt released his plans rather than guarding them, copies proliferated: even today roughly 80 percent of Formula One racers trace their lineage back to this single 1950s homebuilt.
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Did you know?
A tiny pylon-racing monoplane raced wingtip to wingtip at 50 feet; its published plans live on in most Formula One racers.
Specifications
| Length | 5 m (16 ft) |
|---|---|
| Wingspan | 5.3 m (17 ft) |
| Height | 1.3 m (4 ft) |
| Persons on board | 1 |
| Maximum take-off weight | 0.5 t |
| Range | 400 NM (741 km) |
| Service ceiling | 16,000 ft (4,877 m) |
| Optimum ceiling | 13,000 ft (3,962 m) |
| Rate of climb | 1,500 ft/min (7.6 m/s) |
| Take-off distance | 150 m (492 ft) |
| Landing distance | 230 m (755 ft) |
| Fuel capacity | 55 l |
Curated by CatchFlights from manufacturer documents, ICAO Doc 8643 and reference works; values are left out where no source could confirm them. Sources are listed on our credits page.
In CatchFlights
In CatchFlights the Cassutt Special starts as a Rare catch. The tier is an editorial judgement of how special a sighting of this type is. The more often you catch it, the closer it moves to Common for you.
A catch counts for the manufacturer Cassutt, the Special family and the model in your collection, and the daily Type Rating quiz asks about the types of each family.
Catch it yourself.CatchFlights shows the aircraft flying near you on a radar, so a type like this one is only a catch away when it passes overhead. Explore CatchFlights.
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