The Bartel BM 2, originally Bartel M.2 was a Polish

biplane A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two main wings stacked one above the other. The first powered, controlled aeroplane to fly, the Wright Flyer, used a biplane wing arrangement, as did many aircraft in the early years of aviation. While ...

primary

trainer aircraft A trainer is a class of aircraft designed specifically to facilitate flight training of pilots and aircrews. The use of a dedicated trainer aircraft with additional safety features—such as tandem flight controls, forgiving flight characteristic ...

prototype of

1926 In Turkey, the year technically contained only 352 days. As Friday, December 18, 1926 ''(Julian Calendar)'' was followed by Saturday, January 1, 1927 '' (Gregorian Calendar)''. 13 days were dropped to make the switch. Turkey thus became the ...

Design and development

The aircraft was designed by Ryszard Bartel, a chief designer of

Samolot Samolot (full name: Wielkopolska Wytwórnia Samolotów ''Samolot'' '' S.A.'') was the Polish aerospace manufacturer, located in Poznań and active between 1924 and 1930. It manufactured among others aircraft under the Bartel name. The name ''Samo ...

factory in

Poznań Poznań ( ) is a city on the Warta, River Warta in west Poland, within the Greater Poland region. The city is an important cultural and business center and one of Poland's most populous regions with many regional customs such as Saint John's ...

. It was the first Polish design of a trainer plane. Initially it was known as Bartel M.2, then BM 2 (M was for designer's wife Maryla). The prototype was flown on 7 December 1926 in Poznań. In June 1927 it was shown at the first Aviation Exhibition in

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

. It was tested in 1927 and evaluated as quite good, but it was not built in series, because Bartel decided to design an improved aircraft, which resulted in the Bartel BM 4 trainer, which was produced in quantity. After flight testing, the prototype was removed from service. A distinguishing feature of the BM 2 and all Bartels was an upper wing of a shorter span, because the lower and upper wing halves were interchangeable (i.e. the lower wingspan included the width of the fuselage). Also Bartel put a stress on standardizing the construction materials used: steel pipes, metal sheet etc., in order to make production and repairs easier. A distinguishing feature of the BM 2 was the upper wing directly over the lower wing - unstaggered wings, while in later Bartel designs, the wings incorporate forward stagger - where the upper wing is mounted ahead of the lower wing.

Description

Wooden construction

, conventional in layout.

Fuselage The fuselage (; from the French language, French ''fuselé'' "spindle-shaped") is an aircraft's main body section. It holds Aircrew, crew, passengers, or cargo. In single-engine aircraft, it will usually contain an Aircraft engine, engine as wel ...

rectangular in cross-section,

plywood Plywood is a composite material manufactured from thin layers, or "plies", of wood veneer that have been stacked and glued together. It is an engineered wood from the family of manufactured boards, which include plywood, medium-density fibreboa ...

-covered (engine section - metal covered). Rectangular two-spar wings, plywood- and canvas-covered. Crew of two, sitting in

tandem Tandem, or in tandem, is an arrangement in which two or more animals, machines, or people are lined up one behind another, all facing in the same direction. ''Tandem'' can also be used more generally to refer to any group of persons or objects w ...

in open

cockpit A cockpit or flight deck is the area, on the front part of an aircraft, spacecraft, or submersible, from which a pilot controls the vehicle. The cockpit of an aircraft contains flight instruments on an instrument panel, and the controls th ...

s, with individual windshields. Cockpits with twin controls, the instructor seated aft. Fixed

landing gear Landing gear is the undercarriage of an aircraft or spacecraft that is used for taxiing, takeoff or landing. For aircraft, it is generally needed for all three of these. It was also formerly called ''alighting gear'' by some manufacturers, s ...

, with a rear skid (main gear with a common axle, sprung with a rubber rope).

Radial engine The radial engine is a reciprocating engine, reciprocating type internal combustion engine, internal combustion engine configuration in which the cylinder (engine), cylinders "radiate" outward from a central crankcase like the spokes of a wheel. ...

in the fuselage nose, without a

cowling A cowling (or cowl) is the removable covering of a vehicle's engine, most often found on automobiles, motorcycles, airplanes, and on outboard boat motors. On airplanes, cowlings are used to reduce drag and to cool the engine. On boats, cowlings ...

Specifications

References

Bibliography

External links