Letov Š-14

Letov Š-14
Role Single-seat fighter
National origin Czechoslovakia
Manufacturer Letov Kbely
Designer Alois Šmolik
First flight 1924
Number built 1


The Letov Š-14 was a single seat, single engine aircraft designed and built in Czechoslovakia in the early 1920s. Originally intended as a biplane fighter, it was later modified into a monoplane and entered as a contestant in a speed competition.

Design and development

The Letov Š-14 was designed alongside the Letov Š-13, sharing its Škoda licence-built 300 hp (224 kW) Hispano-Suiza 8Fb water-cooled V-8 engine but not its thick airfoil wings. Like the Š-13, it was intended as a single seat biplane fighter aircraft. It was of mixed construction, with wooden wings and a metal framed fuselage.

The wings, mounted without stagger, were straight edged with constant chord and blunt wing tips. It was a single bay biplane with a pair of interplane struts on each side. These were straight and near parallel but converged a little towards the narrower chord lower wing. The upper wing was braced to the fuselage with a cabane immediately ahead of the open cockpit, situated below the wing trailing edge.[1]

The Hispano drove a two blade propeller with a pointed spinner; it was cooled by a rectangular radiator on each side of the fuselage between the wings. The fuselage was flat sided with rounded decking, tapering aft to the mid-mounted tailplane, where the vertical tail was broad and low. The Š-14 landed on a fixed conventional tailskid undercarriage.[1]

The Š-14 first flew in 1924 but Letov quickly decided to concentrate their fighter development efforts on the Letov Š-20 which flew the following year.[1] Instead, the Š-14 was rebuilt as a cantilever monoplane to take part in the Third Speed Contest of 1924. At that event it recorded a speed of 153.13 mph (246.44 km/h).[1]

Specifications (biplane)

Data from Green and Swanborough pp.333-4[1]

General characteristics

Performance



References

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  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Green, William; Swanborough, Gordon (1994). The Complete Book of Fighters. Godalming, UK: Salamander Books. pp. 333–4. ISBN 1-85833-777-1.
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