The Gribovsky G-20 (russian: ГРИБОВСКИЙ Г-20) was an

aerobatic Aerobatics is the practice of flying maneuvers involving aircraft attitudes that are not used in conventional passenger-carrying flights. The term is a portmanteau of "aerial" and "acrobatics". Aerobatics are performed in aeroplanes and glid ...

trainer, designed in the USSR in the mid-1930s. Only one was built; re-engined in 1937, it was used to train many aerobatic pilots.

Design and development

The G-20 was a monoplane with a low wing of semi-elliptical plan, its greatest

chord Chord may refer to: * Chord (music), an aggregate of musical pitches sounded simultaneously ** Guitar chord a chord played on a guitar, which has a particular tuning * Chord (geometry), a line segment joining two points on a curve * Chord ( ...

some way out from the

roots A root is the part of a plant, generally underground, that anchors the plant body, and absorbs and stores water and nutrients. Root or roots may also refer to: Art, entertainment, and media * ''The Root'' (magazine), an online magazine focusing ...

. Unusually, the wing was braced from above with a pair of inverted V steel struts to a crash pylon within the enclosed forward

cockpit A cockpit or flight deck is the area, usually near the front of an aircraft or spacecraft, from which a Pilot in command, pilot controls the aircraft. The cockpit of an aircraft contains flight instruments on an instrument panel, and the ...

. The wing had long, broad chord

aileron An aileron (French for "little wing" or "fin") is a hinged flight control surface usually forming part of the trailing edge of each wing of a fixed-wing aircraft. Ailerons are used in pairs to control the aircraft in roll (or movement around ...

s and manually operated flaps. On its first flight, in 1935, and over its early career it was powered by a five-cylinder Shvetsov M-11 radial engine, a Soviet design which originally produced , enclosed in a broad chord, helmeted cowling. In 1937 performance was improved with the installation of an uprated M-11 variant, the M-11 Ye. Behind the engine the fuselage was deep and rounded below. Instructor and student were in tandem cockpits under continuous, multiframed glazing that merged into a raised rear upper fuselage. Its empennage was conventional, with elliptical, mid fuselage horizontal surfaces, the tailplane braced from the upper fuselage. The fin merged smoothly into the fuselage and carried a broad, unbalanced rudder which extended own to the keel. The tailplane was far enough forward that trailing edges of the elevators were ahead of the rudder hinge. The G-20 had a

tailwheel undercarriage Conventional landing gear, or tailwheel-type landing gear, is an aircraft An aircraft is a vehicle that is able to fly by gaining support from the air. It counters the force of gravity by using either static lift or by using the dynami ...

. Its main wheels, mounted on slender cantilever legs, were enclosed in large, deep spats. It flew for the first time in 1935. It came third in the first All-Union light competition but was initially underpowered for its aerobatic trainer rôle. Its performance was much enhanced by the more powerful M-11 Ye engine and subsequently some seventy pilots qualified on it.

Specifications (M-11 Ye engine)

References

{{Gribovsky aircraft 1930s Soviet civil trainer aircraft

G-20 The G20 or Group of Twenty is an intergovernmental forum comprising 19 countries and the European Union (EU). It works to address major issues related to the global economy, such as international financial stability, climate change mitigation, ...

Low-wing aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1935