Warbird Information Exchange

I'm not familiar enough with gliders to know if this is really a WWII trainer or not, but it sounds like a reasonably priced project for someone......

Found on Barnstormers.com (Pictures included on Barnstormers)

http://www.barnstormers.com/classified_ ... ailer.html

Gary

The LK-10A would be a warbird trainer


LK-10A Laister-Kauffmann


Click on an image to see a full size photograph
General Details
Manufacturer: Laister-Kauffmann
Plane Name:

LK-10A


Classified as: Unclassified
Country Of Origin: U S A
Designer: Jack Laister
No. of Seats 2
No. Built 156

Performance:
L/DMax: 22 89 kph / 45 kt / 55 mph

MinSink: 0.98 m/s / 3.2 fps / 1.90 kt






Specifications:
Span Area Empty Weight Payload Gross Weight Wing Load Water Ballast
m ft sq.m sq.ft kg lb. kg lb. kg lb. kg
/sq.m lb.
/sq.ft kg lb.
15.2 50 13.33 165 215 475 181 400 396 875 29.7 5.27 0 0
Aspect ratio: 15.1
Airfoil: NACA 4418, 4409
Structure: wood/ fabric wing and tail; steel-tube/ fabric fuselage.
Engine:

Comment:
In 1938 Laister completed a sleek gull-wing sailplane, which was referred to as the Lawrence Tech Sailplane after its sponsor. Repainted red, white and blue and renamed the ÑYankee DoodleÒ it competed in a 1939 aerobatic competition at the Paris airshow. With the need for military trainers on the outbreak of World War II, Laister designed the two-place Yankee Doodle 2 from the original with straight wings and automatic control hook-ups. Under the sponsorship of John Kauffmann, a St. Louis businessman, simplified versions were produced in quantity as TG-4AÒs for the USAAC in 1942-43. A flat-top Version with increased performance also has an ATC. A ÑbunnynoseÒ LK, flown by Harold Hutchinson, held the national multiplace goal record of 399 km/ 248 miles from 1956 to 1967. The Vintage Sailplane Association has copies of the military manuals, color scheme drawings and paint chips available. One LK-10A belongs to the National Soaring Museum. ATC

Neat. Thanks for that info. I hope it finds a good home. It would be kinda cool to see old gliders like this flying a circle or two at Warbird shows, before the main show starts up. Maybe prior to the L-birds and PTs fly?

Gary

I haven't flown gliders in over ten years but I solo'd a a WWII vintage Schwizer TG-3A in the 1980's. The three main training gliders were the Schweizer TG-2, TG-3, and Laister Kaufmann LK-10/TG-4. The TG-3A is the best of the bunch. All of them were designed to be fully aerobatic, carry pilot and chute of up to 200 lbs. per cockpit and had position lights that were battery operated for night training and currency.
Our TG-3A at Eagleville has been restored by Gary Davis and he clipped the elliptical wingtips. These early types of gliders will spin quite nicely but got a few people killed in stall spin accidents in the traffic pattern .
The Lk-10 has metal tubing fuselage and wood spar wings with plywood and fabric. A little pricey to rebuild. The 45mph max speed is it's max towing speed it's Vne is probably around 85 to 100 mph.
The glider trailer alone, if in decent conditon is worth the $3,000. The neat thing about this type of warbird is that you can trailer it to an airshow probably faster than your buddy can fly his L-3. The LK-10 is sleeker and smaller than the TG-3 but on the tg-3 they said the wood and fabric work would be about twice the amount needed to do a J-3 Cub wing, FWIW.

I agree that WWII gliders would be great to see in an airshow setting. Does anyone know what the glider primary schools used as towplanes? Most of the information available pertains to advanced flying with the CG-4/C-47 combo. A tow with the actual type of airplane used during the war would be extra cool.

Scott

Love your idea, Gary! There are several organizations preserving this relatively quiet (!) area of warbird history.
http://www.ww2gp.org/training.htm
and
http://www.vintagesailplane.org/index.shtml

A quick perusal of soaring books, picture Vultee L-1, Fairchild PT-23, Stinson L-5 and a USMC N3N as towplanes, but probably any trainer with 150+ HP would have sufficed.

Saw a reference to L-4's being used to train glider pilots as well, here is a cool site with pics of some other training gliders as well
http://www.ww2gp.org/training.htm

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Gary you should have looked up in the musuem at Midland as they have hanging the TG-3A that FG-1 and me plus a few others restored for the CAF. We flew it at a couple of Airshos, but there was never much interest in the type. Our Squadron even lost interest and after a couple of years sitting in my hangar we sent it to Midland. Maybe now days it would be better appreciated. I am sure with a good annual it would be ready to go..........just plaster that old tramp stamp on it and let her go!

Aeronca and Taylorcraft both built engineless airplanes as gliders during WWII

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Yeah, I remember that one now. I hate that I forgot about it. I actually used to walk through the museum fairly frequently, but I reckon my memory isn't as strong as it should be sometimes. It would be neat to see that glider y'all rebuilt back in the air, but since it's in the museum now, it'll never fly again.

Gary

The TG-3A with two guys on board weighs around 1200 to 1300 lbs. So It takes a pretty good towplane to tow it. I saw a picture of an N3N towing an LNS-1 at Parris Island and of course the COnsolidated L-1's. GOod luck finding one of those.
A Stinson L-5 would be a good choice for the WW II era. L-19's were really popular as glider tugs before they got expensive. THe key to having fun in the TG-3 is to fly on a day when there are s trong thermals and then you can get like an hour flight out of the tow, It's also fun to get a tow to about 5,ooo feet and spin or loop it. It's a big lumbering elephant that you have to lead the turns with a lot of rudder.

How about this bird on Barnstormers? Is this a good offer?

AERONCA L-3 • $16,000 • ACCEPTING OFFERS • War Bird 1942 aeronca L-3, C-65 with 1712 smoh runs great. Good instruction plane or a cheap way to learn to fly. Bill Dodds 503 577 8517 • Contact Bill E. Dodds - PCC, Owner - located Gresham, OR USA • Telephone: 503 577 8517 . • Posted August 27, 2009 • Show all Ads posted by this Advertiser • Recommend This Ad to a Friend • Email Advertiser • Save to Watchlist • Report This Ad • View Larger Pictures

http://images.barnstormers.com/tmp_imag ... 5ddc0d.jpg
http://images.barnstormers.com/tmp_imag ... 330a62.jpg

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Dedicated to the preservation and education of The Sikorsky Memorial Airport

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Chicks Dig Warbirds.......right?

Some L4s were bought, had engines removed and all related powerplant systems and a nose that bolted on the piper frame at the engine mount. We had a banner tow cub that was a L4 and it aparently was one of these makeshift gliders at one time in its life.

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Long Live the N3N-3 "The Last US Military Bi-Plane" 1940-1959
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