The Medwecki HL 2 was a Polish two seat lightplane flown in 1927. Handicapped by a low power, unreliable engine, its flying life lasted little more than a month.

Design and development

Light aircraft design was slow to start in Poland but from 1924 the

Airborne and Antigas Defence League Air and Chemical Defense League (Polish: ''Liga Obrony Powietrznej i Przeciwgazowej'', ''L.O.P.P.'') was a mass Poland, Polish paramilitary organization, founded in 1928 as a result of the merger of the ''State Air Defense League'' (Polish: ''Lig ...

, generally known by their Polish acronym L.O.P.P., began to fund amateur builders. One of the first successful bidders was Jozef Medwecki, an aircraft designer with the

Samolot Samolot (full name: Wielkopolska Wytwórnia Samolotów ''Samolot'' '' S.A.'') was the Polish aerospace manufacturer, located in Poznań and active between 1924 and 1930. It manufactured among others aircraft under the Bartel name. The name ''Samo ...

company. The result was the HL 2 two-seater which Medwecki built, with Samolot's approval, in their factory in his spare time. It was finished in August 1927. The HL 2 had a

parasol wing 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 ...

with a quite thick section and a plan that was strictly rectangular apart from a central

trailing edge The trailing edge of an aerodynamic surface such as a wing is its rear edge, where the airflow separated by the leading edge meets.Crane, Dale: ''Dictionary of Aeronautical Terms, third edition'', page 521. Aviation Supplies & Academics, 1997. ...

cut-out to improve the pilot's field of view. The wing was in two parts, built around pairs of wooden spars and

ply Ply, Pli, Plies or Plying may refer to: Common uses * Ply (layer), typically of paper or wood ** Plywood, made of layers of wood ** Tire ply, a layer of cords embedded in the rubber of a tire Places * Plymouth railway station, England, station ...

-covered. It was supported over the fuselage on

cabane strut In aeronautics, bracing comprises additional structural members which stiffen the functional airframe to give it rigidity and strength under load. Bracing may be applied both internally and externally, and may take the form of strut, which act in ...

s, one leaning back from the upper central fuselage to the forward strut and the other a vertical inverted V-strut to the rear spar; the principal bracing members were parallel steel tubes from the lower fuselage

longeron In engineering, a longeron and stringer is the load-bearing component of a framework. The term is commonly used in connection with aircraft fuselages and automobile chassis. Longerons are used in conjunction with stringers to form structural ...

s to the spars. Medwecki's greatest problem was to obtain a suitable engine and in the end had to settle for an elderly, three-cylinder

Anzani Anzani was an engine manufacturer founded by the Italian Alessandro Anzani (1877–1956), which produced proprietary engines for aircraft, cars, boats, and motorcycles in factories in Britain, France and Italy. Overview From his native Italy, An ...

lent to him by Samolot, which left the HL 2 seriously underpowered. It was installed in a simple, flat-sided metal

cowling A cowling is the removable covering of a vehicle's engine, most often found on automobiles, motorcycles, airplanes, and on outboard boat motors. On airplanes, cowlings are used to reduce drag and to cool the engine. On boats, cowlings are a cove ...

with its cylinder heads exposed for cooling. The cowling widened rearwards to match the dimensions of the HL 2's simple, rectangular section fuselage which was built around four wooden

s and ply covered. Behind the fuel tanks the open

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 ...

s were in tandem and fitted with dual control. The forward one was under the wing and was entered via a car-type door with a special lock to insure integrity of the upper longeron and the rear one, conventionally entered, was under the trailing edge cut-out. The HL 2's strut-braced

tailplane A tailplane, also known as a horizontal stabiliser, is a small lifting surface located on the tail (empennage) behind the main lifting surfaces of a fixed-wing aircraft as well as other non-fixed-wing aircraft such as helicopters and gyroplane ...

was mounted on top of the fuselage and, like the

elevators An elevator or lift is a cable-assisted, hydraulic cylinder-assisted, or roller-track assisted machine that vertically transports people or freight between floors, levels, or decks of a building, vessel, or other structure. They are ...

, was essentially rectangular in plan. The

fin A fin is a thin component or appendage attached to a larger body or structure. Fins typically function as foils that produce lift or thrust, or provide the ability to steer or stabilize motion while traveling in water, air, or other fluids. Fin ...

was triangular and carried a rectangular

rudder A rudder is a primary control surface used to steer a ship, boat, submarine, hovercraft, aircraft, or other vehicle that moves through a fluid medium (generally aircraft, air or watercraft, water). On an aircraft the rudder is used primarily to ...

. Its fixed

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 ...

had mainwheels on a single axle with rubber cord shock absorbers and supported at each end by a V-strut to the lower fuselage longeron. There was a short tailskid under the fin. The HL 2 made its first flights in September 1927 from Samolot's home ground of Poznan-Lawica, flown by Wladyslaw Szulczewski. Despite the lack of power it was capable of aerobatics. It was entered as a competitor in the L.O.P.P.-organised First National Lightplane Contest held at the start of October in

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

but engine problems on the way there caused it to fail to meet the deadline. Nonetheless, Szulczewski took part as an unofficial contestant and at first its performance was outstanding but during a cross-country flight the engine failed again. The HL 2 was seriously damaged in the consequent emergency landing and never flew again.

Specifications

References

{{reflist, refs= {{cite book, title=Polish Aircraft 1893-1939, last=Cynk, first=Jerzy, year=1971, publisher=Putnam Publishing, location=London, isbn=0 370 00085 4, pag
371-2
url-access=registration, url=https://archive.org/details/polishaircraft1800cynk/page/371 {{cite web , url=http://www.samolotypolskie.pl/samoloty/1823/126/HL-2-Haroldek, title=HL-2 "Haroldek", 1927 , access-date=22 December 2017 Single-engined tractor aircraft Parasol-wing aircraft 1920s Polish sport aircraft HL2 Aircraft first flown in 1927