The Udet U 11 Kondor was a German four-engined
airliner
An airliner is a type of aircraft for transporting passengers and air cargo. Such aircraft are most often operated by airlines. Although the definition of an airliner can vary from country to country, an airliner is typically defined as an ...
designed and built by
Udet Flugzeugbau
Udet Flugzeugbau GmbH was an aircraft manufacturer founded in the summer of 1921 in Munich by Ernst Udet with Henry Hans Herrmann and Erich Scheuermann, funded by the American financier William Pohl, designing and building light sport and commerc ...
, only one was built.
Design and development
The U 11 Kondor was an open-cockpit, metal-fuselage, wooden high-wing
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 ...
powered by four
Siemens-Halske Sh 12
The Siemens-Halske Sh 12 was a nine-cylinder, air-cooled, radial engine for aircraft built in Germany in the 1920s. First run in 1925, it was rated at 80 kW (110 hp). The Sh 12 was also produced in the United States by Ryan Aeronautic ...
piston engines in shaft-driven pusher configuration.
It had a crew of three and room for eight passengers with a dangerously close clearance between the pusher propellers and rear passenger door, which caused one fatality.
The aircraft was tested by Harry Rother near Munich, finding a tail-heavy condition which required addition of larger control surfaces. The only U 11 was first flown on 19 January 1926 and was refused by
Deutsche Luft-Reederei
Deutsche Luft-Reederei (D.L.R.), was a German airline established in December 1917 which started operating in 1919.
History
The name means "German (Deutsche) Air (Luft) Shipping Company (Reederei)". D.L.R. was reorganized as Aero Lloyd AG in 1 ...
then purchased by
Deutsche Luft Hansa
''Deutsche Luft Hansa A.G.'' (from 1933 styled as ''Deutsche Lufthansa'' and also known as ''Luft Hansa'', ''Lufthansa'', or DLH) was a German airline, serving as flag carrier of the country during the later years of the Weimar Republic and th ...
, crashing on its delivery flight. The cost to develop and produce the prototype was a factor in the collapse of the company, which was then taken over by
Bayerische Flugzeugwerke.
Specifications (U 11)
See also
References
Notes
Bibliography
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External links
Udet U 11Flickr Photo
{{Udet aircraft
U 11
1920s German airliners
Aircraft first flown in 1926
High-wing aircraft
Four-engined pusher aircraft