| U 8 Limousine | |
|---|---|
 | |
| U 8 with 9-cylinder Siemens-Halske engine | |
| Role | three passenger transport aircraft |
| National origin | Germany |
| Manufacturer | Udet |
| Designer | Hans Henry Herrmann |
| First flight | 1924 |
| Number built | 5 |
| Developed from | Udet U 5 |
The parasol wing, single engine Udet U 8, sometimes referred to as the Limousine, was a three-seat commercial passenger transport designed and built in Germany in 1924. Five were produced and were used by German airlines until about 1928.
The first Udet passenger transport was the two-passenger U 5, which appeared in 1923. [1] [2] [3] [Notes 1] This was powered by a 52 kW (70 hp), seven-cylinder, Siemens-Halske Sh 5 radial engine. [1] [2] The following year Udet produced the first U 8, which had a 75 kW (100 hp) nine-cylinder, Siemens-Halske Sh 6 radial, making it rather heavier than the U 5 but leaving the design only slightly changed and the dimensions unaltered. The new engine allowed the U 8 to carry three passengers. [4] [5]
The cantilever, one-piece parasol wing of the U.8 was trapezoidal in plan, with long, elliptical tips. It had a thick section which thinned outwards and was built around two spruce box spars and fabric covered. Its ailerons tapered in chord out to the wing tips; together, they occupied 45% of the span. [4] [6] The wing was mounted a little above the fuselage on four short struts, two to each spar, an unusual arrangement used earlier on the U 5 and chosen by its designer, Hans Herrmanns, to improve both the aerodynamics at the wing-fuselage junction and cabin ventilation, a problem in small cabin aircraft of the time. [1] Under the wing, part of the cabin roof was open. The wing struts, uncovered on the U 5, were covered by longitudinal panels. [5]
At least three types of radial engines powered the five U.8s known to have been built. The first examples had the Siemens-Halske Sh 6 but later both nine-cylinder, 82 kW (110 hp) Siemens-Halske Sh 12s and a 3-cylinder, 81 kW (109 hp) Bristol Lucifer. [7] No images of the Bristol installation are known but the German radials were cleanly cowled by the standards of their time, before either Townend rings or NACA cowlings had been introduced, and with quite large spinners but with cylinder heads exposed for cooling. [4]
One advantage of the gap between fuselage and wing was that the pilot's open cockpit could be placed under the wing leading edge rather than set into it, spoiling its aerodynamics. Entry into the plywood covered fuselage was through a port-side door under the wing; the three-seat cabin had pairs of windows on each side and a baggage space behind with its own door. [4]
At the rear the fuselage became quite slender, with a high mounted, long span, cantilever and almost rectangular plan tailplane with high aspect ratio elevators. The tailplane incidence could be adjusted in-flight. Its quadrant-shaped fin mounted a rudder which extended down to the keel. [6] The U 8 had fixed, conventional landing gear of the single axle type which was more refined than that of the U5, [2] with a longer oleo strut to mid-fuselage and rearward drag struts. There was a short tailskid. [6]
In about 1925 at least one Udet 8 was fitted with full-span Lippmann/Handley Page slats coupled to full-span ailerons which were lowered together as camber increasing flaps when the slats were deployed. It was one of the earliest German aircraft to have slats. [8] The slatted Udet 8 was recorded as a Udet 8a [9] or Udet 8B [8] in contemporary journals, though a modern source states that the U 8a (D-839) had a new wing with an area increase of 7 m2 (75 sq ft) and a Sh-12 engine. [5] D-839 is recorded as a U 8b in a reconstructed register. [10]
In 1925 one U 8, D-670, competed in the "Round Germany Flight", one of only two commercial types to do so. Powered during the contest by the Bristol Lucifer engine (it had a nine-cylinder Siemens at another time), it successfully completed all five circuits of the contest, a total of distance of 5,242 km (3,257 mi; 2,830 nmi) but, with a more powerful engine than most in its class (C}, was ranked only ninth. Another Udet entrant, the two seat Udet U 10, won class B. [7]
The five U 8s were initially used by Deutsche Aero Lloyd, but two of them were transferred to Nordbayeriche Verkehrsflug when Aero Lloyd became Deutsche Lufthansa in 1926. One of these (D-670) crashed soon after. It was transferred to the DVS and was joined there by D-839 later in the year. [5] [10]
Data from Flight, May 1925 [4]
General characteristics
Performance
The Albatros L 59 was a single-seat German utility aircraft of the 1920s. It was a single-engine low-wing cantilever monoplane with large, spatted wide track undercarriage attached, unusually for the time not to the fuselage but to the wing roots. The whole aircraft was covered in 3-ply.
The Udet U 12 Flamingo was an aerobatic sports plane and trainer aircraft developed in Germany in the mid-1920s.
The Focke-Wulf A.16 was a German three/four passenger light transport monoplane designed by Heinrich Focke and Georg Wulf and was the first design built by the newly formed Focke-Wulf company.
The Junkers K 16 was a small airliner produced in Germany in the early 1920s. It was a conventional, high-wing cantilever monoplane of all-metal construction, equipped with fixed, tailwheel undercarriage. The pilot sat in an open cockpit, while the two passengers were provided with an enclosed cabin within the fuselage. Shortly after the prototype flew, aircraft production in Germany was brought to a complete halt by the Allies, and the K 16 was quickly evacuated to the Netherlands to avoid confiscation. There, it was stored by Fokker until the restrictions were relaxed and work recommenced at Junkers' Dessau factory in 1924. By this time, however, the airline niche that the tiny K 16 had been intended to fill no longer existed, and the small number that were produced were mostly sold to private owners. Junkers entered two K 16s in the 1925 Deutsche Rundflug, with one machine winning second place in the competition.
The Junkers T 19, originally known as the J 19, was a single-engined parasol winged all-metal 2/3-seat aircraft built in Germany in the early 1920s for training and touring. Its construction was too expensive for commercial success and only three were built, one later finding use as an engine test-bed.
The Udet U 11 Kondor was a German four-engined airliner designed and built by Udet Flugzeugbau, only one was built.
The Siemens-Schuckert DDr.I was a World War I German twin engine, push-pull configuration triplane fighter aircraft. Only one was built, crashing on its first flight.
The LFG V 40 and V 44 were one-off, single-engine, two-seat sports monoplanes, identical apart from their engines, built in Germany in 1925.
The V 52 was a one off, single engine, two seat sports monoplane, built in Germany in 1925.
The Albatros L.71 was a two-seat, single pusher engined biplane built in Germany in the 1920s.
The Udet U 1 was the first of a line of small, low-powered, low wing, cantilever monoplanes built in Germany in the early 1920s.
The Dietrich-Gobiet DP.VII was a simple, low power, German sports aircraft flown in early 1924.
Udet Flugzeugbau GmbH was an aircraft manufacturer founded in the summer of 1921 in Munich by Ernst Udet with Henry Hans Herrmann and Erich Scheuermann, funded by the American financier William Pohl, designing and building light sport and commercial aircraft, within the limitations of the Versailles Treaty.
The 1923 Feiro I was the first Hungarian designed and built civil transport aircraft, modified in 1925 by an engine change into the Feiru Daru (Crane). Neither was a commercial success.
The Grulich S.1 was a German parasol monoplane with a cantilever wing, built in the mid 1920s. It seated two and offered a choice between two engines.
The Raab-Katzenstein KL.1 Schwalbe (Swallow) was a German two-seat biplane produced in the 1920s. About fifty were built and the type became well known as an aerobatic aircraft, performing at many displays in the hands of pilots like Gerhard Fieseler.
The Aviaméta 92 was a French, all-metal, five seat monoplane built in the late 1920s. Three different engines were fitted, and one example flew the first non-stop Paris-Algiers flight in preparation for an abandoned trans-Atlantic attempt.
The Działowski D.K.D.4 was a Polish, parasol-wing, sports two-seater built in 1928. One won the Second National Lightplane Contest, with another coming fifth.
The Nordflug FB 1 was a small, parasol wing flying boat with two seats in tandem, sponsons for stability on the water and a low-powered, wing mounted engine.
The Zenith Albatross Z-12 was a large, three-engined airliner built in the United States in 1928. It could carry up to 11 passengers. Only one was completed.
