Janka-Rotter Vándor

Last updated
Vándor
Rotter Lajos-Vandor-1.jpg
Role Intermediate training glider
National origin Hungary
Manufacturer MOVERO Glider Department Workshop, Gyöngyös
Designer Zoltán Janka and Lajos Rotter
First flight Spring 1934
Number built 1

The Vándor (Wanderer) was a 1930s Hungarian single seat glider intended to ready students who had qualified on primary gliders for contemporary soaring and aerobatic aircraft. Only one was built.

Hungary Country in Central Europe

Hungary is a country in Central Europe. Spanning 93,030 square kilometres (35,920 sq mi) in the Carpathian Basin, it borders Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Austria to the northwest, Romania to the east, Serbia to the south, Croatia to the southwest, and Slovenia to the west. With about 10 million inhabitants, Hungary is a medium-sized member state of the European Union. The official language is Hungarian, which is the most widely spoken Uralic language in the world. Hungary's capital and largest city is Budapest. Other major urban areas include Debrecen, Szeged, Miskolc, Pécs and Győr.

Glider (aircraft) broad type of heavier-than-air aircraft designed for operation without an engine

A glider is a heavier-than-air aircraft that is supported in flight by the dynamic reaction of the air against its lifting surfaces, and whose free flight does not depend on an engine. Most gliders do not have an engine, although motor-gliders have small engines for extending their flight when necessary by sustaining the altitude with some being powerful enough to take off self-launch.

Gliding recreational activity and competitive air sport

Gliding is a recreational activity and competitive air sport in which pilots fly unpowered aircraft known as gliders or sailplanes using naturally occurring currents of rising air in the atmosphere to remain airborne. The word soaring is also used for the sport.

Contents

Development

In the 1930s most glider pilots began on very simple, single seat aircraft, very often open frame machines like the Zögling, then faced the difficult task of converting to the large soaring and aerobatic gliders of the day. The 1931 Grunau Baby was becoming a popular intermediate trainer, a candidate to fill the gap at least for slope soaring. Though rather little is known about the Vándor, it seems to have been intended to play the same role in the developing but unstructured Hungarian glider scene, capable of soaring and aerobatics. The influence of the 1931 Baby on the Vandor is seen in the similarity of layouts, though the designs are significantly different. [1]

The wooden Vándor was a braced high wing monoplane. Its wings, built around two spars, were rectangular out to semi-elliptical tips. They were plywood covered from the leading edge to the forward spar, with fabric covering the rest of the wing and ailerons, and supported by V-struts from the lower fuselage longerons to the two spars. The ailerons were large, occupying over 60% of the trailing edges. [1]

Monoplane Fixed-wing aircraft with a single main wing plane

A monoplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with a single main wing plane, in contrast to a biplane or other multiplane, each of which has multiple planes.

Spar (aeronautics) Main structural member of the wing of an aircraft

In a fixed-wing aircraft, the spar is often the main structural member of the wing, running spanwise at right angles to the fuselage. The spar carries flight loads and the weight of the wings while on the ground. Other structural and forming members such as ribs may be attached to the spar or spars, with stressed skin construction also sharing the loads where it is used. There may be more than one spar in a wing or none at all. However, where a single spar carries the majority of the forces on it, it is known as the main spar.

Wing tip part of an aircraft

A wing tip is the part of the wing that is most distant from the fuselage of a fixed-wing aircraft.

Its fuselage was polygonal in cross section with deep, flat sides and plywood covered. The pilot sat in an open cockpit immediately ahead of the leading edge of the wing, which was centrally supported on a raised upper fuselage which tapered gently to the tail. The vertical tail had a straight leading edge and tip but the balanced rudder had a trailing edge composed of three straight sections, almost appearing curved. The rudder was mounted on a short fin which was strengthened by wire bracing to the tailplane. In plan the latter was straight tapered and tipped, apart from a generous cut-out in the elevators to permit rudder movement. All the rear surfaces were ply covered. [1] [Notes 1] The Vandor landed on a skid, attached to the fuselage bottom by two rubber ring springs, assisted by a short tailskid. [1]

Cockpit area, usually near the front of an aircraft, from which a pilot controls the aircraft

A cockpit or flight deck is the area, usually near the front of an aircraft or spacecraft, from which a pilot controls the aircraft.

Balanced rudder

Balanced rudders are used by both ships and aircraft. Both may indicate a portion of the rudder surface ahead of the hinge, placed to lower the control loads needed to turn the rudder. For aircraft the method can also be applied to elevators and ailerons; all three aircraft control surfaces may also be mass balanced, chiefly to avoid aerodynamic flutter.

Tailplane small lifting surface located on the tail (empennage) behind the main lifting surfaces of a fixed-wing aircraft as well as other non-fixed-wing aircraft such as helicopters and gyroplanes

A tailplane, also known as a horizontal stabiliser, is a small lifting surface located on the tail (empennage) behind the main lifting surfaces of a fixed-wing aircraft as well as other non-fixed-wing aircraft such as helicopters and gyroplanes. Not all fixed-wing aircraft have tailplanes. Canards, tailless and flying wing aircraft have no separate tailplane, while in V-tail aircraft the vertical stabilizer, rudder, and the tail-plane and elevator are combined to form two diagonal surfaces in a V layout.

No precise date for the Vandor's first flight is known but contemporary references suggest it was in the spring of 1934. Its flight characteristics came in for continued criticism. It was heavy, with an empty weight of 173 kg (381 lb) compared with the 125 kg (276 lb) of the Grunau Baby 2, [2] caused partly by the need for extra strength to cope with the stresses of aerobatics. This made slow flight within thermals difficult, not helped by the choice of airfoil. There are no known contemporary reports of its aerobatic performance but the heavy ailerons were much criticised, one student reported that their operation required both hands on the control column. The sole example remained in use until at least 1939 but flying it was seen as a challenge for all but the very best students; it certainly failed to meet its original aim of all-purpose intermediate trainer [1]

Airfoil

An airfoil or aerofoil is the cross-sectional shape of a wing, blade, or sail.

Specifications

Rotter Lajos-Vandor.jpg

Data from Gabor (1988) p.56 [1]

General characteristics

Notes

  1. ↑ However, photographs seem to show that the elevator at least was fabric covered.

Related Research Articles

The Dart Cambridge was a single-seat competition sailplane built in the United Kingdom in the 1930s. A development of the Grunau Baby, only two were built, flying with gliding clubs.

Akaflieg Darmstadt D-7 Margarete

The Akaflieg Darmstadt D-7 Margarete, often shortened to Darmstadt D-7 Margarete, was one of the earliest two seat monoplane gliders, designed and built by German university students in 1923.

Akaflieg Darmstadt D-9 Konsul

The Akaflieg Darmstadt D-9 Konsul, often shortened to Darmstadt D-9 Konsul, was a high performance, single seat, cantilever monoplane sailplane, designed and built by a German University student group in 1923 for hill soaring.

The Akaflieg Darmstadt D-28 Windspiel was a single-seat, high-performance sailplane designed in Germany in the early 1930s. Intended to exploit a growing understanding of thermal soaring, it was small and manoeuvrable, with a 12 m span; silk-covered for lightness, it weighed less (empty) than its pilots. It held the world straight-line distance record for a time in 1934.

The LCF II is a single seat Club Class glider, designed and built in the 1970s by German glider club members and intended to be suitable for training, competition and in particular aerobatics. Only one was completed.

The CVV 2 Asiago is a simple, single seat glider designed and built in Italy in the mid-1930s, the second of a series of gliders from the Milan Polytechnic and the first go into production.

CVV 8 Bonaventura

The CVV 8 Bonaventura was a two-seat competition glider designed and built in Italy during the 1950s. Fifteen were produced.

The Bonomi BS.14 Astore was a two-seat training and aerobatic glider, designed and built in Italy in 1935. Only one was constructed.

The Pagliani Vittoria was a single-seat glider built in Italy during Second World War. Only one was constructed.

The CVT1 Zigilo was a single-seat, 12 m (39 ft) span Italian training glider designed and built in Italy in the 1950s. Only one was completed.

The Teichfuss Sparviero was an Italian single seat aerobatic glider, designed by Luigi Teichfuss and flown in 1938.

The IIL IS-11 was an aerobatic, single seat glider, designed and built in Romania in 1959. It was built in small numbers.

The RRG Professor was a very early soaring glider and the first to use a variometer for finding thermals. It was designed by Alexander Lippisch in Germany, first flying in 1928. The Professor was widely built by both flying clubs and factories.

The Schneider Grunau 8 was a simple, two-seat trainer glider designed and built in Germany in the early 1930s.

The Schneider ES49 is a two seat glider trainer, designed, first flown in late August 1951 and commercially produced in Germany but later built from plans by gliding clubs in Australia. A major redesign there led to the ES49B Kangaroo.

The Czerwiński CW 7 was a Polish aerobatic glider first flown in 1934. Despite a structural weakness that prevented inverted flight, a small batch of CW 7s were used by several aeroclubs until the start of World War II.

The Warsztaty Szybowcowe Sokół was a 1930s Polish aerobatic sailplane. Ten were built and flown by Polish aeroclubs, participating in national and international events, until the outbreak of the Second World War.

Rubik R-03 Szittya I

The Rubik R-03 Szittya I was a Hungarian single-seat sailplane flown in the late 1930s. The design was developed through three improving variants. though only one of each was built.

The Jancsó-Szokolay M22 was a Hungarian single-seat sailplane first flown in 1937. Twenty were built and the type set several national records. Some remained in service up to about 1953.

The Rubik R-17 Móka (Joy) was a Hungarian aerobatic glider designed in the late 1930s. One prototype was built and first flown in 1944 but was destroyed near the end of World War II. Two more, with modified ailerons and a new fuselage, were built in 1950 but were abandoned after a fatal accident.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Gabor, Jareb. (1988). Magyar vitorlázó repülőgépek. Budapest: Müszaki Könuvkiadó. pp. 54–6.
  2. ↑ Simons, Martin (2006). Sailplanes 1920-1945 (2nd revised ed.). Königswinter: EQIP Werbung & Verlag GmbH. p. 25. ISBN   3 9806773 4 6.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.