The LAK-20 is a

Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...

n Open Class two-seat sailplane produced by Sportinė Aviacija.

Design and development

The LAK-20 is an Open Class two-seat

sailplane A glider or sailplane is a type of glider aircraft used in the leisure activity and sport of gliding (also called soaring). This unpowered aircraft can use naturally occurring currents of rising air in the atmosphere to gain altitude. Sailplan ...

with a

wingspan The wingspan (or just span) of a bird or an airplane is the distance from one wingtip to the opposite wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777–200 has a wingspan of , and a wandering albatross (''Diomedea exulans'') caught in 1965 had a wingsp ...

of 23-metres or 26-metres. Made out of modern

composite Composite or compositing may refer to: Materials * Composite material, a material that is made from several different substances ** Metal matrix composite, composed of metal and other parts ** Cermet, a composite of ceramic and metallic material ...

materials, it features a

T-tail A T-tail is an empennage wikt:configuration, configuration in which the tailplane of an aircraft is mounted to the top of the vertical stabilizer, fin. The arrangement looks like the capital letter T, hence the name. The T-tail differs fr ...

and retractable landing gear. The wings are slightly swept forward and interchangeable outer wing panels are provided to enable it to fly with a wingspan of either 23 metres or 26 metres. The glider is available as the self-sustaining LAK-20T variant or the self-launching LAK-20M variant, both equipped with an engine. The engines used are two-stroke two-cylinder retractable

engine An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy. Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power ge ...

s from engine manufacturer SOLO.

Variants

;LAK-20T :Production variant, self-sustaining sailplane with a 22 kW (30 hp)

two-stroke A two-stroke (or two-stroke cycle) engine is a type of internal combustion engine that completes a power cycle with two strokes of the piston, one up and one down, in one revolution of the crankshaft in contrast to a four-stroke engine which re ...

two-cylinder air-cooled Solo 2350C retractable engine. ;LAK-20M :Production variant, self-launching sailplane with a 47 kW (64 hp) two-stroke two-cylinder liquid-cooled Solo 2625 02 retractable engine.

Specifications (LAK-20T 26-metre)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sportine Aviacija LAK-20 LAK aircraft Lithuanian sailplanes