Czerwinski-Shenstone UTG-1 Loudon

Last updated
UTG-1 Loudon
Role Intermewdiate Glider
National origin Canada
Manufacturer University of Toronto
Designer Wacław Czerwiński & Beverley S. Shenstone
First flight 5 November 1949 [1]
Number built 1 [1]

The UTG-1 Loudon was an intermediate glider designed and built at the University of Toronto in Canada during the late 1940s. [1]

University of Toronto university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada

The University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in the colony of Upper Canada. Originally controlled by the Church of England, the university assumed the present name in 1850 upon becoming a secular institution. As a collegiate university, it comprises eleven colleges, which differ in character and history, each with substantial autonomy on financial and institutional affairs. It has two satellite campuses in Scarborough and Mississauga.

Canada Country in North America

Canada is a country in the northern part of North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic to the Pacific and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering 9.98 million square kilometres, making it the world's second-largest country by total area. Canada's southern border with the United States is the world's longest bi-national land border. Its capital is Ottawa, and its three largest metropolitan areas are Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver. As a whole, Canada is sparsely populated, the majority of its land area being dominated by forest and tundra. Consequently, its population is highly urbanized, with over 80 percent of its inhabitants concentrated in large and medium-sized cities, many near the southern border. Canada's climate varies widely across its vast area, ranging from arctic weather in the north, to hot summers in the southern regions, with four distinct seasons.

Contents

Design and development

By 1947 Canadian glider pilots urgently needed a new intermediate performance glider for club use and cross-country flying. Concurrently the Loudon Professor of Civil Engineering at the University of Toronto proposed that his 4th year students gain experience by building a glider. Waclaw Czerwinski and Beverley S. Shenstone designed a small glider for the students to build, which was completed within two years and flown for the first time on 5 November 1949. [1]

Construction of the Loudon was primarily of wood with fabric and plywood skinning, following contemporary standard practice of a shoulder set two piece wing immediately aft of the enclosed cockpit. The fuselage was built up from spruce frames and stringers with plywood covering incorporating the integral fin. The wing consisted of a single cantilever spar with a ply sandwich leading edge torque tube. Made up ribs forming the wing section aft of the spar and all control surface, were fabric covered. [1]

Aircraft fabric covering

Aircraft fabric covering is a term used for both the material used and the process of covering aircraft open structures. It is also used for reinforcing closed plywood structures, the de Havilland Mosquito being an example of this technique, and on the pioneering all-wood monocoque fuselages of certain World War I German aircraft like the LFG Roland C.II, in its wrapped Wickelrumpf plywood strip and fabric covering.

Plywood manufactured wood panel made from thin sheets of wood veneer

Plywood is a material manufactured from thin layers or "plies" of wood veneer that are glued together with adjacent layers having their wood grain rotated up to 90 degrees to one another. It is an engineered wood from the family of manufactured boards which includes medium-density fibreboard (MDF) and particle board (chipboard).

Fuselage aircraft main body which is the primary carrier of crew, passengers, and payload

The fuselage is an aircraft's main body section. It holds crew, passengers, and cargo. In single-engine aircraft it will usually contain an engine, as well, although in some amphibious aircraft the single engine is mounted on a pylon attached to the fuselage, which in turn is used as a floating hull. The fuselage also serves to position control and stabilization surfaces in specific relationships to lifting surfaces, which is required for aircraft stability and maneuverability.

Controls were entirely conventional with ailerons near the wing-tips, tailplane with elevators at the base of the fin and a rudder hinged from the rear of the fin. [1]

Support on the ground consisted of a large nose skid under the nose extending from the nose back to a semi-recessed mainwheel, aft of the centre of gravity a steel sprung tailskid at the base of the fin and re-inforced wingtips. [1]

Flight testing of the Loudon was successful and an experimental type certificate was issued by the Canadian Department of Transport in November 1952, receiving the registration CF-ZBN-X. [1]

Transport Canada

Transport Canada is the department within the Government of Canada responsible for developing regulations, policies and services of transportation in Canada. It is part of the Transportation, Infrastructure and Communities (TIC) portfolio. The current Minister of Transport is Marc Garneau. Transport Canada is headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario.

Operational history

The Loudon was used for several years before an accident wrote the aircraft off.

Specifications (UTG-1 Loudon)

Data from Shenstone [2]

General characteristics

Performance

  • Stall speed: 25 mph; 22 kn (40.2 km/h)
  • Never exceed speed: 90 mph; 78 kn (145 km/h)
  • Rough air speed max: 145 km/h (90.1 mph; 78.3 kn)
  • Aerotow speed: 145 km/h (90.1 mph; 78.3 kn)
  • Winch launch speed: 105 km/h (65.2 mph; 56.7 kn)
  • g limits: +5.08 -3.08
  • Maximum glide ratio: 22 at 66 km/h (41.0 mph; 35.6 kn)
  • Rate of sink: 146 ft/min (0.74 m/s) at 46.7 km/h (29.0 mph; 25.2 kn)
  • Wing loading: 3.2 lb/sq ft (15.8 kg/m2)

See also

Aircraft of comparable role, configuration and era

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "Czerwinski-Shenstone-UTG-1-Loudon" (in Polish). Retrieved 6 April 2013.
  2. ↑ Shenstone, B.S.; K.G. Wilkinson (1963). The World's Sailplanes:Die Segelflugzeuge der Welt:Les Planeurs du Monde Volume II (in English, French, and German) (1st ed.). Zurich: Organisation Scientifique et Technique Internationale du Vol a Voile (OSTIV) and Schweizer Aero-Revue. pp. 46–47.

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References

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