The Klemm Kl 32 was a touring aircraft, developed in Germany in 1932, based on the
Klemm Kl 31 __NOTOC__
The Klemm Kl 31 was a touring aircraft, developed in Germany in the early 1930s. It was a conventional, low-wing cantilever monoplane with four seats in an enclosed cabin. The fixed, tailskid undercarriage had divided mainwheel units. T ...
as a competitor in the
Challenge 1932 The Challenge 1932 was the third FAI International Tourist Plane Competition (french: Challenge International de Tourisme), that took place between 12 and August 28, 1932 in Berlin, Germany. The four Challenges, from 1929 to 1934, were major aviat ...
touring aircraft competition.
Design and development
Like its predecessor, the KI 32 was a conventional, low-wing cantilever monoplane with fixed, tailskid undercarriage. The Kl 32, however, had a smaller cabin (seating three), and a fuselage built from wood rather than metal.
Eight Kl 32s were entered in the competition, seven by German teams and one by a Swiss team. These were powered by a variety of engines, including the
Bramo Sh 14
The Siemens-Halske Sh 14 was a seven-cylinder air-cooled radial engine for aircraft produced in Germany in the 1920s and 1930s. First run in 1928, it was rated at 93 kW (125 hp).
Applications
* Albatros L 82
* Ambrosini SAI.3
* Amb ...
,
Argus As 8
The Argus As 8 was a four-cylinder, air-cooled, inverted inline aircraft engine produced in Germany by Argus Motoren in the 1930s.
Variants
;As 8A:Initial production version maximum for 5 minutes, continuous.
;As 8B:A more powerful variant de ...
,
de Havilland Gipsy
The de Havilland Gipsy is a British air-cooled four-cylinder in-line aircraft engine designed by Frank Halford in 1927 to replace the ADC Cirrus in the de Havilland DH.60 Moth light biplane. Initially developed as an upright 5 litre (3 ...
, and
Hirth HM 150. Notable German pilots included
Robert Lusser Robert Lusser (19 April 1899 – 19 January 1969) was a German engineer, aircraft designer and aviator. He is remembered both for several well-known Messerschmitt and Heinkel designs during World War II, and after the war for his theoretical study o ...
(who designed the aircraft),
Wolf Hirth
Wolfram Kurt Erhard Hirth (28 February 1900 – 25 July 1959) was a German gliding pioneer and sailplane designer. He was a co-founder of Schempp-Hirth, still a renowned glider manufacturer.Segelflugbildkalendar 2011
Hirth was born in Stuttgart ...
, and
Reinhold Poss
Reinhold Poss (11 September 1897 – 26 August 1933) was a German flying ace and racing Aviator, pilot. Poss enlisted with the Imperial German Navy during World War I and scored eleven kills as a naval pilot. In May 1918 he took command of th ...
.
Hirth won the short takeoff trial in his Kl 32, and Poss tied for second place in the overall competition with his. Five of the teams flying Kl 32s finished in the top ten in the "rally over Europe" part of the competition, and five of the top ten scores overall were achieved by teams flying Kl 32s.
A Klemm L32-V (VH-UVE, originally D-2299) was flown by
Maude Bonney during her Brisbane to Cape Town flight in 1937, a distance of 29,088 km and the first flight from Australia to South Africa.
Specifications
See also
References
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{{RLM aircraft designations
Klemm aircraft
1930s German sport aircraft
Low-wing aircraft
Single-engined tractor aircraft
Aircraft first flown in 1932