The AEKKEA-RAAB R-29 was a

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

single-seat parasol

monoplane A monoplane is a fixed-wing aircraft configuration with a single mainplane, in contrast to a biplane or other types of multiplanes, which have multiple planes. A monoplane has inherently the highest efficiency and lowest drag of any wing confi ...

trainer and/or light fighter developed by

Antonius Raab The history of AEKKEA (''Anonymos Etaireia Kataskevis Kai Ekmetallefseos Aeroplanon'' - ''Societe Anonyme Pour la Fabrication et l'Exploitation des Avions Raab''), an aircraft maker based in Greece, is connected with the history of a talented Ger ...

, a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

aircraft designer, with his Greek partners and was the sole Raab aircraft to be developed in Greece.

Design and development

The airplane had wooden wings and an

Elektron (alloy) Elektron is the registered trademark of a wide range of magnesium alloys manufactured by a British company Magnesium Elektron Limited. There are about 100 alloys in the Elektron range, containing from 0% to 9.5% of some of the following elemen ...

metal-tube

fuselage The fuselage (; from the French ''fuselé'' "spindle-shaped") is an aircraft's main body section. It holds crew, passengers, or cargo. In single-engine aircraft, it will usually contain an engine as well, although in some amphibious aircraft t ...

.Raab, 1984, p.134 However, there is no exact record for produced numbers. The R-29 was a new design developed by Raab's Greek company in late 1936 but shared structural characteristics with the preceding R-27 type (a type also first recorded as an

AEKKEA-RAAB The history of AEKKEA (''Anonymos Etaireia Kataskevis Kai Ekmetallefseos Aeroplanon'' - ''Societe Anonyme Pour la Fabrication et l'Exploitation des Avions Raab''), an aircraft maker based in Greece, is connected with the history of a talented Ger ...

product by ''Jane's'' 1935 ed., most probably designed earlier by Raab and never produced), which featured an inline

Hispano-Suiza 12Y The Hispano-Suiza 12Y was an aircraft engine produced by Hispano-Suiza for the French Air Force before the Second World War. The 12Y became the primary French 1,000 hp (750 kW) class engine and was used in a number of famous aircraft, ...

engine, retractable

undercarriage Undercarriage is the part of a moving vehicle that is underneath the main body of the vehicle. The term originally applied to this part of a horse-drawn carriage, and usage has since broadened to include: *The landing gear of an aircraft. *The ch ...

and twin machine-guns. Export documents to Spain and ''Jane's'' (1936 ed.) reported it as a fighter, but Raab later described it as a trainer,Raab, 1984, p.134 which would be borne out by the low powered engine chosen. A batch of these aircraft, along with the ''Tigerschwalbe R-26V/33'' (derived from an earlier Raab-Katzenstein model), were to be delivered to the Republican forces. Components of 30 aircraft were to be produced in Greece and shipped to Spain, where a subsidiary would carry out final assembly. An AEKKEA aircraft engineer, Georgios Pangakis, reported 40 (rather than 30) ''R-29s'' shipped to Spain, still missing engines and machine guns, which proved difficult to acquire. According to Raab, the Republicans gave roughly 60 incomplete airframes of both types, along with plans to the

Soviets Soviet people ( rus, сове́тский наро́д, r=sovyétsky naród), or citizens of the USSR ( rus, гра́ждане СССР, grázhdanye SSSR), was an umbrella demonym for the population of the Soviet Union. Nationality policy in th ...

to be shipped back to the

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

. The AEKKEA archives were destroyed and there seems to be no surviving images and only the contemporary ''Jane's'' provides a written description.

Specifications

References

External links

L.S. Skartsis, "Greek Vehicle and Machine Manufacturers 1800 to Present: A Pictorial History", Marathon (2012)
(ebook) {{DEFAULTSORT:Aekkea-Raab R-29 1930s Greek fighter aircraft Aircraft manufactured in Greece

Design and development

Specifications

See also

References

Further reading

External links