For a while I flew an aero commander 100 “darter” (not the 112 low wing type) that looked like a Cessna 172 with a Mooney tail. It had a couple of cool innovat

For a while I flew an aero commander 100 “darter” (not the 112 low wing type) that looked like a Cessna 172 with a Mooney tail. It had a couple of cool innovations, fiberglass leaf springs for the landing gear, and a laminar flow airfoil. The gear was great, flexible without feeling springy, and the airfoil gave me about a 0.5-1gph cruise efficiency improvement over the 172 with the same engine/prop at the same speed. (Depending on how clean/waxed the wing was, rain, etc) The wing was not good for bush flying though, it was either flying or not flying, not much middle ground. Popping off in ground effect to accelerate was much less effective than in a 172. The stall break was a slight burble, then a clean break with no extra warning. The airplane was well mannered, though, hard to get it to drop a wing, and very controllable in a falling leaf stall.