The Kirigamine Mita is a training

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 ...

, seating two in tandem, designed in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

in the early 1960s. A modified version, first flown in 1966, was produced in modest numbers.

Design and development

The original Mita 3 was designed and built by the Kirigamine Glider Manufacturing Co and flown in 1962. It was then developed and produced in an improved version, the kai 1, by the Light Aircraft Development Co. (L.A.D.) with production later taken over in turn by the Tainan Industry Co., so that the aircraft is also known as the Tainan Mita 3. The kai 1 first flew in 1966. The Mita 3 is of mixed steel and wood construction, largely covered with

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 ...

and

fabric Textile is an umbrella term that includes various fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, filaments, threads, different fabric types, etc. At first, the word "textiles" only referred to woven fabrics. However, weaving is not the ...

. The

shoulder wing A monoplane is a fixed-wing aircraft configuration with a single mainplane, in contrast to a biplane or other types of multiplane (aeronautics), multiplanes, which have multiple planes. A monoplane has inherently the highest efficiency and lowe ...

is in three pieces, with an unswept, straight

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 a centre panel of constant

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 ( ...

; the outer panels are straight tapered. All panels are built around plywood covered single box spars. The Mita designer, Asahi Miyahara, chose a NACA series 6 airfoil, popular at the time, which aimed to optimise

laminar flow In fluid dynamics, laminar flow is characterized by fluid particles following smooth paths in layers, with each layer moving smoothly past the adjacent layers with little or no mixing. At low velocities, the fluid tends to flow without lateral mi ...

. The

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 the rear wing surfaces are fabric covered and the outer panels are demountable for transportation, the joints covered with aluminium fairings. The wing tips are glass-plastic mouldings.

Schempp-Hirth Schempp-Hirth Flugzeugbau GmbH is a glider manufacturer based in Kirchheim unter Teck, Germany. History Martin Schempp founded his own company in Göppingen in 1935, with the assistance of Wolf Hirth. The company was initially called "Sportfl ...

airbrakes, located near mid-chord at the ends of the centre section, extend both above and below the wings. 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 aircraft t ...

of the Mita 3 is steel framed with wooden stringers, polygonal in cross-section and fabric covered apart from a glass reinforced plastic (GRP) nose cone and a short GRP dorsal fairing behind the

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 rear of the single piece, starboard side hinged canopy rises upwards above the rear fuselage line, allowing the instructor to be placed above the pupil pilot in the front seat, with an upper and two small side transparencies to assist his view. The fuselage tapers gently rearwards to the straight tapered tail surfaces; the tailplane is mounted on the top of the fuselage and is, like the wing, a ply box structure with fabric covering aft and carrying fabric covered elevators with a cut out for

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 ...

movement. 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 ...

is similarly plywood skinned, with a small GRP

fillet Fillet may refer to: *Annulet (architecture), part of a column capital, also called a fillet *Fillet (aircraft), a fairing smoothing the airflow at a joint between two components *Fillet (clothing), a headband *Fillet (cut), a piece of meat *Fille ...

; the rudder, which extends to the keel, is fabric covered, mass balanced and has a GRP tip. The Mita 3 lands on a fixed, rubber sprung monowheel undercarriage and a fixed tailskid.

Operational history

37 Mita 3 ka 1 aircraft had been produced by the start of 1979.

Variants

;Mita 3:Original aircraft designed and built by Kiriganine in 1962 ;Mita 3 kai 1: Improved version by L.A.D. and flown in 1966, including a larger cockpit with a raised rear instructor's seat. Produced first by L.A.D. then Tainan.

Aircraft on display

* Kakamigahara Aerospace Museum – L.A.D.Mita 3 ka 1 ''JA2091''

Specifications (kia-1)

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=134 {{cite book , title=Sailplanes 1965-2000, url=https://archive.org/details/sailplanes00simo, url-access=limited, last=Simons , first=Martin , edition=2nd revised , year=2005, publisher= EQIP Werbung & Verlag GmbH, location=Königswinter , isbn=3-9808838-1-7, page
183
��5 {{cite web , url=http://www.aviationmuseum.eu/World/Asia/Japan/Gifu/Kakamigahara_Aerospace_Museum.htm, title=Kakamigahara Aerospace Museum , access-date=27 August 2012

External links

NACA 63₃618 airfoil
1960s Japanese aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1962 Shoulder-wing aircraft