The SAIMAN LB.2 was an unconventional

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

two seat cabin side by side sport aircraft designed around 1937, with a single

pusher configuration In an aircraft with a pusher configuration (as opposed to a tractor configuration), the propeller(s) are mounted behind their respective engine(s). Since a pusher propeller is mounted behind the engine, the drive shaft is in compression in nor ...

engine, twin tail booms and an early

tricycle undercarriage Tricycle gear is a type of aircraft undercarriage, or ''landing gear'', arranged in a tricycle fashion. The tricycle arrangement has a single nose wheel in the front, and two or more main wheels slightly aft of the center of gravity. Tricycle ge ...

Design and development

As well as its own designs like the SAIMAN 202 cabin

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 ...

, SAIMAN also constructed other peoples' aircraft. The LB.2 was one of the latter, designed by Francis Lombardi who was well known for his

Avia FL.3 The AVIA FL.3 (also later known as the Lombardi FL.3) was an Italian two-seat cabin monoplane designed and built by Azionaria Vercellese Industrie Aeronautiche (AVIA) who were later taken over by Lombardi in 1947. Development The FL.3 was a simp ...

trainer aircraft A trainer is a class of aircraft designed specifically to facilitate flight training of pilots and aircrews. The use of a dedicated trainer aircraft with additional safety features—such as tandem flight controls, forgiving flight characteristi ...

. The unusually laid out LB.2 was largely of conventional wooden construction. It was a

cantilever A cantilever is a rigid structural element that extends horizontally and is supported at only one end. Typically it extends from a flat vertical surface such as a wall, to which it must be firmly attached. Like other structural elements, a canti ...

mid-wing monoplane, with a three section wing consisting of a centre section and two outer panels. The wing's wooden structure was

plywood Plywood is a material manufactured from thin layers or "plies" of wood veneer that are glued together with adjacent layers having their wood grain rotated up to 90 degrees to one another. It is an engineered wood from the family of manufactured ...

covered at the

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, ...

and fabric covered aft. Slotted flaps were fitted. Two parallel, rectangular section tail booms, mounted at the wing centre section-outer panel junctions, carried the

empennage The empennage ( or ), also known as the tail or tail assembly, is a structure at the rear of an aircraft that provides stability during flight, in a way similar to the feathers on an arrow.Crane, Dale: ''Dictionary of Aeronautical Terms, third ed ...

. Like the wings, the tail surfaces had wooden structures and were plywood and fabric covered. The

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 ...

and

elevator An elevator or lift is a wire rope, cable-assisted, hydraulic cylinder-assisted, or roller-track assisted machine that vertically transports people or freight between floors, levels, or deck (building), decks of a building, watercraft, ...

was of constant chord and did not extend beyond 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 ...

s, which had swept, straight leading edges and carried curved

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 ...

s, cut away below. The central nacelle of the LB.2 placed the seating well ahead of the wing leading edge and the engine at the

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. ...

. It was a flat sided structure of mixed construction, with plywood covering around the nose and cabin and metal around the engine. Seating was enclosed, with access via

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 ...

side doors. The flat cabin top continued behind the cabin to the engine housing, where an 82 kW (110 hp) Alfa-Romeo 110-I 4-cylinder inverted air-cooled in-line engine was mounted in pusher configuration. The LB.2 was one of the first Italian aircraft with a tricycle undercarriage. This was non-retractable, with the mainwheels on short vertical oleo legs wing mounted at the root of the tailbooms. The nosewheel was steerable.

Operational history

The SAIMAN LB.2 appeared at the Milan show of 1937, though ''Flight'' dismissed it as a "freak". ''Jane's All the World's Aircraft 1938'' described it as "now built under licence by SAIMAN" but it is not certain that more than the prototype was constructed.

Specifications

References

{{Portal bar, Italy, Companies, Aviation 1930s Italian sport aircraft Single-engined pusher aircraft Mid-wing aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1937