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I own a Cessna 182 that was originally owned by the Washington State Police. While they owned it they added an automotive-style muffler (planes don't normally

by repiret 11y ago

I own a Cessna 182 that was originally owned by the Washington State Police. While they owned it they added an automotive-style muffler (planes don't normally have mufflers) to use it for stealth surveillance. They tore that all out before they sold the plane. There's a pretty complete description of what they did in the Form 337 history: http://mike.laiosa.org/N6594E/Airworthiness.pdf http://mike.laiosa.org/N6594E/Airworthiness.pdf - see in particular pages 27 and 55.

cmurf 11y ago
Neat plane, 182. I must have ~1500 hours in that model. Simple, normally aspirated, non retractable gear, constant speed prop, really good IFR training plane. Good trip plane, loading and fuel wise. Never a concern getting it into and out of small tenor gravel strip airports. Police surveillance, makes sense, relatively inexpensive to operate, but good loading for whatever gear they're carrying.
- repiret 11y ago
  Yeah it's a great plane, hard to beat for any operation where you don't need more speed more altitude. I'll bet law enforcement can operate them for about 2X a regular squad car. Unfortunately most of my family gets horribly air sick, so mine is for sale - I'm looking for something cheaper to operate and cheaper to buy.
geoffeg 11y ago
I think the muffler is more to carry the exhaust away from the surveillance equipment than to quiet the plane down.
- repiret 11y ago
  Not likely. The exhaust normally comes out directly from the engine compartment, forward of the firewall. But the modification moves it farther aft - bringing it closer to where a survalence package would be mounted. That said, this planes survalence package was probably a guy in the right seat with a 35mm camera. If a camera was mounted on the belly or a window for one installed, that would appear in the airworthiness history. And besides, the police operated this plane in the 80s and 90s, when taking a zillion pictures and sorting through them later wasn't economic.

by repiret 11y ago

cmurf 11y ago

Neat plane, 182. I must have ~1500 hours in that model. Simple, normally aspirated, non retractable gear, constant speed prop, really good IFR training plane. Good trip plane, loading and fuel wise. Never a concern getting it into and out of small tenor gravel strip airports. Police surveillance, makes sense, relatively inexpensive to operate, but good loading for whatever gear they're carrying.

repiret 11y ago
Yeah it's a great plane, hard to beat for any operation where you don't need more speed more altitude. I'll bet law enforcement can operate them for about 2X a regular squad car. Unfortunately most of my family gets horribly air sick, so mine is for sale - I'm looking for something cheaper to operate and cheaper to buy.

geoffeg 11y ago

I think the muffler is more to carry the exhaust away from the surveillance equipment than to quiet the plane down.

repiret 11y ago
Not likely. The exhaust normally comes out directly from the engine compartment, forward of the firewall. But the modification moves it farther aft - bringing it closer to where a survalence package would be mounted. That said, this planes survalence package was probably a guy in the right seat with a 35mm camera. If a camera was mounted on the belly or a window for one installed, that would appear in the airworthiness history. And besides, the police operated this plane in the 80s and 90s, when taking a zillion pictures and sorting through them later wasn't economic.