Not Much More Than a Glider

This Week’s Hints to help you along:

  • Set three world records between 1927 and 1930 — none for speed.
  • Featured a 3-cylinder radial engine with  just 18 hp.
  • Seen in the skies over Italy and later over the Baltics and Sweden.
  • Designed to weigh in at less than 500 lbs!

So do you know what this aircraft is?

 

 

 

Post a REPLY below with your best guess!

Click here to check out the previous What’s That?

 

3 thoughts on “Not Much More Than a Glider

  1. Caleb says:

    That is a Miller Light Plane first built by Wilson Miller while he was in high school. It had a top speed in excess of 75 MPH and had a cruising speed around 65 MPH.

    Reply
  2. Gazanion says:

    This plane is the Lampich L2 (4th September, 1925) and it had 18-hp, three-cylinder engine, Thorotzkai delta light aircraft from Technical University Sportflying Society (MSrE), a Hungarian society founded in Budapest in 1921. The plane achieved three world records and was named Roma after the final stop on a long distance world record flight. See http://www.erdcenter.hu/pub/ec/erd/en/airfield.html and http://gliders-fega.freeweb.hu/MSrE.html

    Regarding the pilot, Károly Kaszala (1891-1932), his world records included — in 1927 he flew non-stop for 9 hours and 21 minutes in a circular course in his light, low-performance machine. In 1928, he flew with the same plane to Rome, where they painted ROMA on the side of the aircraft, which became its new name. With this plane (L-2 Roma), the designing engineer, Árpád Lampich, made a flight of 1022 km (635 miles) in just 16 hours for yet another world record!

    Reply
    1. HW says:

      Excellent eye — yes, that is the Lampich L2 “Roma”, a record-setting plane from Hungary, a country with an interesting history of aviation and aeronautical engineering innovation that are not often studied, but should be!

      Reply

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