Aviation

What is the microplane “Wasp” created by Kronstadt craftsmen? At first glance, it seems there is nothing new in it. A strut-braced high-wing monoplane, a scheme that has become the most popular among amateur designers. This very scheme was the basis for the microplanes “Leningradets” by N. Tatsiturny, “Malysh” by L. Komarov, “Sputnik” by V. Read more…

During 1970, our magazine published a series of articles by a group of autogyro designers about the features of building these rotary-wing aircraft, about how to build autogyro models, how to fly gyrogliders towed by a boat or car. At the request of numerous readers, we tell in this issue about the autogyro control system Read more…

Throughout most of the Cold War, the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY) and the Socialist Republic of Romania (SRR) were the most “rebellious children” in the family of socialist countries. Yugoslavia, under the leadership of Marshal Tito, not only did not join the Eastern Bloc but was one of the key countries of the Read more…

“In recent times, hang gliders have become popular — unique successors to gliders. Hang gliders quickly won the love of our youth, and with it, the right to exist. Naturally, there is a desire to install a small boat or motorcycle engine on a hang glider to fly not only in updrafts…” This statement belongs Read more…

Numerous gatherings of amateur aircraft designers brought together hundreds of small aviation enthusiasts, and this clearly showed that interest in designing amateur aircraft is enormous. However, in many cases, an insoluble problem for ultralight aircraft enthusiasts is the engine problem — powerful, light, compact, and economical. I believe that if industry produced such engines, small Read more…

Kharkiv residents have a long tradition of love for technology. Since the construction of the legendary Tractor, since the first graduations of the Aviation Institute, since the first pre-war work of the Kharkov DTS and the Palace of Technical Creativity. The city, saturated to the limit with industrial enterprises, research and educational institutes, could not Read more…

Is it possible in our time, which is called a period of total shortage, to build an airplane yourself? Tver amateur aviators Evgeny Ignatiev, Yuri Gulakov and Alexander Abramov answered this question in the affirmative, creating a winged single-seat aircraft, later called Argo-02. The plane turned out to be successful: it successfully flew at the Read more…

In our city of Kingisepp there was a gliding club ROSTO, where I worked as a pilot instructor since 1996. The club had two light aircraft and four gliders. But they were all far from new. ROSTO no longer allocated money for the purchase of new aircraft or repair of old ones. The aircraft equipment Read more…

By experience, we know that the appearance of the “Beetle-42” delta wing aircraft evokes many emotions and, naturally, questions. Let’s set aside the emotions and focus on the most significant question: why does it have a four-wheel chassis instead of a three-wheel one? Before answering, let’s recall that ground vehicles with three-wheel chassis and front-wheel Read more…