Feiro I
Feiro I | |
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Role | Four seat civil transport |
National origin | Hungary |
Manufacturer | Feigl and Rotter |
Designer | Lajos Rotter |
First flight | late 1923-early 1924 |
Number built | 1 |
Developed into | Feiro Daru |
The 1923 Feiro I was the first Hungarian designed and built civil transport aircraft, modified in 1925 by an engine change into the Feiru Daru (Crane). Neither was a commercial success.
Design and development
The Feiro I was the first design of Lajos Rotter in his collaboration with the brothers Gyula and László Feigl.
It was a
Behind the engine the fuselage was rectangular in cross-section, with four longerons and 3-ply covered. The Le Rhone rotary was partially enclosed within an open-bottomed
The deep cabin of the Feiro I had two rows side-by-side seats; the front pair could both be equipped with flight controls or one of then could serve as a third passenger seat. Because the high engine fairing reached the underside of the wing leading edge, there was no central forward view from the controls; instead, there were deep openings on either side. Access to the cabin was via a port side door. Behind the cabin the fuselage tapered to the tail where a short, broad fin carried a deep rudder. The tailplane was also mounted on the fin, just above the fuselage so that it could be used to trim the aircraft by altering its angle of incidence. It had swept leading edges, square tips and carried elevators with a cut-out for rudder movement. The fixed tail surfaces were ply skinned and the control surfaces fabric covered.[2]
The Feiro I had a tailskid undercarriage with mainwheels 2 m (6 ft 7 in) apart and rubber sprung on a single axle, its ends supported by longitudinal V-struts and positioned laterally by a steel V-strut; all struts were from the lower fuselage longerons.[2][4]
The first flight was late in 1923 or in January 1924, though the exact date is not known. Some testing had been done by mid-February, establishing good handling and a take-off distance of around 46 m (150 ft) but detailed performance figures had yet to be established.[2] By March an estimated maximum speed of 160 km/h (99 mph) had been confirmed.[3] Feiro's resources were limited and they had difficulty obtaining some important raw materials, even in small quantities, receiving no public support for the Feiro I's development.[4] Hungary's manufacturers lost many of their material suppliers when the country's boundaries were shrunk by the Treaty of Trianon after the end of World War I.
Despite these problems, two years later and after their innovative high
After these commercial failures with powered designs, Rotter became instead a successful glider pilot and designer. Flying his first such design, the 1933
Variants
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/04/FEIRO-Daru.jpg/220px-FEIRO-Daru.jpg)
- Feiro I
- 1923 version with 120 hp (89 kW) Le Rhone 9J rotary engine.[2]
- Feiro Daru
- 1925 version with 180 hp (134 kW) Hispano-Suiza 8Awater-cooled V-8 engine, a slightly swept wing and revised vertical tail.
Specifications (Feiro I)
Data from Flight 14 February 1924, pp.86-7[2]
General characteristics
- Crew: One pilot
- Capacity: Three passengers
- Length: 8.83 m (29 ft 0 in)
- Wingspan: 14.25 m (46 ft 9 in)
- Wing area: 26 m2 (280 sq ft)
- Joukowski-Göttingen, thickness/chord ratio=14%[3]
- Empty weight: 750 kg (1,653 lb)
- Gross weight: 1,200 kg (2,646 lb)
- Powerplant: 1 × Le Rhone 9J 9-cylinder rotary engine, 89 kW (120 hp)
- Propellers: two-bladed
Performance
- Maximum speed: 160 km/h (99 mph, 86 kn) [3]
- Time to altitude: 6 min to1,000 m (3,300 ft)[6]
- Take-off distance: 45 m (148 ft)[6]
References
- ^ "Hungarian Gliders 1933-2000". Retrieved 17 November 2012.
- ^ a b c d e f g h "The Feiro I Commercial Monoplane". Flight. Vol. XVI, no. 7. 14 February 1924. pp. 86–7.
- ^ a b c d "La vie aéronautique - un avion de transport hongrois". L'Aéronautique. 6 (68): 65. March 1924.
- ^ a b c d "L'Avion Feiro, type "Daru"". Les Ailes. 5 (230): 2. 12 November 1925.
- ISBN 3-9806773-4-6.
- ^ a b "Le monoplan Feiro, type "Daru"". Les Ailes. 4 (1400): 2. 21 February 1924.