In my musings I seem to recall there was an aircraft which covnerted the rear seats into a bed and quite a comfortable area for overnight stops – maybe not quite up to a VW camper, but on the way there. I imagine it wasnt very popular. That said, for those who go touring, and perhaps camp under the wing or such like, it seems a reasonable design concept.
I did have an unfortuante occasion recently to have to unexpectedly night stop and didnt especially want to end up in an hotel. When I mentioned staying in the aircraft, the ground staff looked at me with horror (although I dont think they actually said no), but it was a larger commercial airport. At strips of course no one would care. At larger airports whether they could actually tell you “no”, who knows. I know lots of lorry drivers do exactly this, and while under normal circumstances I am very happy not to, it equally would not bother me for a forced night stop.
Murphy Rebel had a picture of that in their marketing brochure.
Republic Seabee is another where you can fold the seats to get some sort of bed.
Fly310 – well recalled – and I think there was something really altogether a little larger and more purpose designed but still a SEP.
The An-2 has also been used as a flying caravan even though it was not designed like that from the beginning. One family in Sweden used one for that purpose.
(back in the days when fuel was really cheap)
Fly310 wrote:
The An-2 has also been used as a flying caravan even though it was not designed like that from the beginning. One family in Sweden used one for that purpose.
This has been my idea for some time, too. There is one with recliners and a sofa for sale now on Planecheck. Or just get a plain An-2 for something like 20k (plenty to choose from) and convert it.
Somewhat more spartan variant: in a Grumman Tiger/Cheetah with the back seats folded, you get about 1.7 m of flat floor. I slept in it on a couple of occasions.
Problem with the AN-2 is probably the fuel consumption these days. Can it use MOGAS? That would probably make it a little bit more manageable but few airfields have the infrastructure to fuel those amounts of MOGAS I guess.
I have a Grumman Tiger. It works quite OK when folding the back seats down. I’m 1.74.
You need some kind of mattress though, as it doesn’t get completely flat (or anywhere near soft).
I believe a nice Cherokee Six has to be the most practical aerovan. A good bush airplane that pays for itself in Alaska. Might want to avoid the calor gas VW camper cooking grill .
Fly310 wrote:
Problem with the AN-2 is probably the fuel consumption these days. Can it use MOGAS?
Yes it can, and 0.8 L/km fuel consumption doesn’t look terribly bad for the kind of plane you can live in, not merely sleep.
There’s always a 767, just don’t get into a dispute over the size of the beds! https://www.flightglobal.com/pictures-google-founders-aviation-company-sued-in-boeing-767-luxury-conversion-lawsuit/68424.article
Personally, one has to have pipe dreams, and if I were in these guys position I’d fit out a Cessna Caravan or a Quest Kodiak and spend some considerable time flying it around the planet. since it gets you in and out of mostly anywhere. Looks like the non-cockpit space in a Caravan is 5.10m length, 1.29m width and 1.30m height. That’s pretty sufficient to fit a basic living space. People have fitted out a VW Combi Van for this type of purpose, and it’s (overall) smaller at 2.69m x 1.50m and 1.44m. You get a belly pod on the plane (maybe for additional fuel?), or roof storage on the car. Obviously weight is a greater issue in the plane than the car. Why hasn’t anyone done this yet?
