Loening OL
| Loening OL | |
|---|---|
 Amphibious aircraft Loening OA |
|
| Type: | Reconnaissance plane |
| Design country: | |
| Manufacturer: | |
| First flight: |
1923 |
| Number of pieces: |
165 |
The Loening OL was an American amphibious aircraft from 1923 that was manufactured by Loening Aircraft Engineering . It was used in large numbers by the US Navy , the US Coast Guard and the United States Army Air Corps as a reconnaissance aircraft.
development
The Loening OL flew for the first time in 1923. It had a large central swimmer and two small side swimmers. As an amphibious aircraft, it had a retractable landing gear and a tail skid. A Liberty V12- A (V-1650) with 420 hp (309 kW) was used as the engine. A whole series of variants was built, which mostly differed only in the engine and minor wing changes. The last variant was the OL-9 , this was already built together with the Keystone Aircraft Corporation . In 1927 the manufacturer merged with Keystone under the founder Grover Loening .
The US Army ordered 45 machines between 1924 and 1928, which were mainly used in Hawaii and the Philippines . 15 of these machines were of the type OA-1A , this was the designation in the US Army. A total of 165 machines were built. In 1925, the US Navy transferred three weather observation machines to Cuba . The US Coast Guard received three OL-5 machines in October 1926 .
The OA-1A later formed the basis for a very similar aircraft, the Grumman J2F Duck .
Pan American Good Will Tour 1926/1927
After the great success of circumnavigating the world with the Douglas DWC , the decision was made to do a Good Will Tour over Mexico , Central and South America . On December 21, 1926, five OA-1As took off from San Antonio, Texas . The tour led through 25 countries over 35,200 km.
The flight route went through Mexico, Guatemala , El Salvador , Honduras , Nicaragua , Costa Rica and Panama . We continued via Colombia , Ecuador , Peru , Bolivia to Valdivia in Chile . The group flew over the Andes to Bahía Blanca in Argentina . The return flight then went via Uruguay , Paraguay , Brazil , Guiana , Venezuela to the West Indies . On May 2, 1927, the planes landed in Washington, DC
Technical specifications
| Parameter | Data Loening OA-1A |
|---|---|
| crew | 2 |
| Passengers | 1 |
| length | 10.7 m |
| span | 13.9 m |
| Wing area | 47 m² |
| height | 3.5 m |
| Empty mass | 1725 kg |
| Takeoff mass | 2345 kg |
| drive | a Liberty V12 -A (V-1650) with 420 PS (309 kW) |
| Top speed | 196 km / h |
| Range | 1207 km |
| Service ceiling | 4114 m |
| Armament | one fixed 7.7 mm machine gun and two articulated 7.7 mm machine guns |
Museum plane
After the Pan American Good Will Tour in 1927, a machine, the "San Francisco", was handed over to the Smithsonian Institute and completely restored in 1964/65. It is now in the USAF Museum at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio .
