The Bánhidi ''Gerle'' (Hungarian: "Dove") was a two-seat, single-engine sport biplane built in Hungary in the early 1930s,Taylor 1989, 688''The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Aircraft'', 2572 designed by Antal Bánhidi.KTE 2005, 8

Design and development

The aircraft had a conventional layout, with staggered, single-bay wings of equal span braced by N-struts. The pilot and passenger sat in open cockpits in tandem, and the main units of the tailskid undercarriage were divided. The fuselage was constructed of fabric-covered steel tube, while the wings were built of plywood ribs and spruce spars and also covered in fabric."The Gerle 13 Biplane" 1933, 916 Bánhidi flew a single prototype (the Gerle 11 on 4 September 1930. This was followed by examples (designated Gerle 12 to Gerle 15) built by Műegyetemi Sportrepülő Egyesület, the sport flying club at the

Budapest Technical University The Budapest University of Technology and Economics ( or in short ), official abbreviation BME, is a public university, public research university located in Budapest, Hungary. It is the most significant university of technology in the country ...

, and by another three machines (Gerle 16 to Gerle 18) built by WNF in

Wiener Neustadt Wiener Neustadt (; Lower_Austria.html" ;"title=".e. Lower Austria">.e. Lower Austria , ) is a city located south of Vienna, in the state of Lower Austria, in northeast Austria. It is a self-governed city and the seat of the district administr ...

. The Gerles built by Műegyetemi Sportrepülő Egyesület are sometimes known under the name MSrE Gerle or MSE Gerle. Bánhidi achieved fame with the Gerle 13 when in 1933 he made a long-distance flight of 12,258 km around the Mediterranean. Between 19 February and 24 March, he and Tibor Bisits visited twenty-two citiesMKKA in Italy, France, Spain, North Africa, Egypt, Palestine, Turkey, and Greece, spending around 100 hours in the air.AIAA Later the same year, Bánhidi made a flight from Hungary through northern Europe to England and back to Hungary, his route taking him from

Debrecen Debrecen ( ; ; ; ) is Hungary's cities of Hungary, second-largest city, after Budapest, the regional centre of the Northern Great Plain Regions of Hungary, region and the seat of Hajdú-Bihar County. A city with county rights, it was the large ...

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, and then non-stop back to

. This final leg of the flight covered 1,640 km, a considerable achievement in a light aircraft at the time."1025 miles non-stop"

Replicas

A flying replica of the Gerle 13 was built in 1988. A flying replica of the Gerle 12, HA-AAE, has been built at

Budaörs Airport Budaörs Airport (), is an airport located in the 11th district of Budapest, Hungary and was named after the neighboring town Budaörs. Now serving general aviation, it was once Hungary's only international airport. History Until the opening ...

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

, by Goldtimer Aviation. The first test flight took place, successfully, on December 4. 2015.

Variants

* Gerle 11 – prototype (1 built) * Gerle 12 – version with Thorotzkay engine, later changed to Manfred Weiss Sp III (1 built by MSrE) * Gerle 13 – version with

Armstrong Siddeley Genet Major The Armstrong Siddeley Genet Major is a British five-cylinder (later seven-cylinder), air-cooled, radial engine for aircraft, designed and built by Armstrong Siddeley and first run in 1928. It developed 140 horsepower (104 kW). In Royal A ...

engine (1 built by MSrE) * Gerle 14 – version with Manfred Weiss Soport 1 engine (2-3 built by MSrE) * Gerle 15 – version with Armstrong Siddeley Genet Major engine (1 built by MSrE) * Gerle 16 – single-seat version with

Armstrong Siddeley Genet The Armstrong Siddeley Genet is a five-cylinder, air-cooled, radial engine for aircraft use built in the UK, first run in 1926. It developed 80 hp at 2,200 rpm in its final form and was a popular light aircraft powerplant. Following ...

engine (1 built by WNF) * Gerle 17 – (1 built by WNF) * Gerle 18 – version with

Siemens Sh 14 The Siemens-Halske Sh 14 was a seven-cylinder air-cooled radial engine for aircraft produced in Germany in the 1920s and 1930s. First run in 1928, it was rated at 93 kW (125 hp). It was briefly distributed in the United States by Ryan A ...

engine (1 built by WNF)

Specifications (Gerle 13)

Notes

References

* * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Banhidi Gerle 1930s Hungarian sport aircraft MSrE aircraft Biplanes Single-engined tractor aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1930