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The Orlican VT-16 Orlik is a single-seat club
*
glider
Glider may refer to:
Aircraft and transport Aircraft
* Glider (aircraft), heavier-than-air aircraft primarily intended for unpowered flight
** Glider (sailplane), a rigid-winged glider aircraft with an undercarriage, used in the sport of glidin ...
, serving Czech
Czech may refer to:
* Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe
** Czech language
** Czechs, the people of the area
** Czech culture
** Czech cuisine
* One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus'
Places
* Czech, ...
gliding clubs and setting several national records in the early 1960s.
Design and development
The VT-16 Orlik was designed by Jiri Matejček and is ahigh-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 co ...
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 con ...
of all-wood construction, except that the skin is stabilized with polystyrene foam. Its wing has a single spar structure with a forward torsion box; the whole wing is plywood skinned and foam filled, allowing the ribs to be comparatively widely spaced. In plan it is straight-tapered with blunt tips; there are 3° of dihedral. It has conventional plain ailerons and spoiler
Spoiler is a security vulnerability on modern computer central processing units that use speculative execution. It exploits side-effects of speculative execution to improve the efficiency of Rowhammer and other related memory and cache attacks. Ac ...
s at mid- chord, which extend both above and below the wing. At the time of its first flight in August 1959 it was a Standard Class glider with a span. Later aircraft had and spans but it was the 16 m version that went into series production.
The 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 aircraf ...
of the Orlik is a semi-monocoque of deep oval cross-section, tapering to the tail. The single-seat cockpit, placed just ahead of the wing, is covered by a side-hinged blown canopy. Its tail is conventional with a straight-edged, ply-covered and foam-filled all-moving tailplane, fitted with an anti-balance tab
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A servo tab is a small hinged device installed on an aircraft control surface to assist the movement of the control surfaces. Introduced by the German firm Flettner, servo tabs were formerly known as Flettner tabs. Servo tabs are not ...
, mounted on top of the fuselage and ahead of the small 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 ...
which is constructed in the same way. The fabric-covered, balanced rudder is broad and taller than the fin, reaching down to the keel. Overall, the vertical tail has almost upright straight edges and a blunt tip. The Orlik has a fixed, semi-recessed monowheel
A monowheel, or uniwheel, is a one-wheeled single-track vehicle similar to a unicycle.
Hand-cranked and pedal-powered monowheels were patented and built in the late 19th century; most built in the 20th and 21st century have been motorized. ...
ahead of the wing leading edge
The leading edge of an airfoil surface such as a wing is its foremost edge and is therefore the part which first meets the oncoming air.Crane, Dale: ''Dictionary of Aeronautical Terms, third edition'', page 305. Aviation Supplies & Academics, ...
, assisted by a small tail bumper.
Operational history
25 VT-16 Orliks were produced in the first series production run, going to Czech gliding clubs. The Orlik also set several new Czech national gliding records during 1962. 15 VT-16s and 48 VT-116s remain on the Czech civil aircraft register in 2010, though some are disassembled.Variants
;VT-16 Orlik: about 25 built. ;VT-116 Orlik II: more than 50 built.Aircraft on display
*Prague Aviation Museum, Kbely
Kbely Aviation Museum (''Letecké Muzeum Kbely'') is the largest aviation museum in the Czech Republic and one of the largest of its kind in Europe. It is located to the north-east of Prague, at the military airport Kbely.
Creation of the museum ...
: Orlik I ''OE-2408''
Specifications (VT-16)
See also
References
{{reflist, refs= {{cite book , title=Gliders & Sailplanes of the World, last= Hardy , first= Michael , year=1982, publisher=Ian Allan Ltd, location= London, isbn=0-7110-1152-4, page=140 {{cite book , title=Aviation Museums and Collections of Mainland Europe , last= Ogden , first=Bob , year=2009, publisher= Air Britain (Historians) Ltd, page=63 , isbn=978-0-85130-418-2 {{cite book , title=European registers handbook 2010 , last= Partington , first=Dave , year=2010, publisher= Air Britain (Historians) Ltd, isbn=978-0-85130-425-0 {{cite book , title= The World's Sailplanes, last1= Shenstone , first1= B.S. , last2=Wilkinson , first2=K.G., volume=II, year=1963, publisher=Organisation Scientifique et Technique Internationale du Vol à Voile (OSTIV) and Schweizer Aero-Revue, pages=62–3 1950s Czechoslovakian sailplanes High-wing aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1959