Laister LP-15 Nugget
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The Laister LP-15 Nugget is an American single-seat,
high-wing A monoplane is a fixed-wing aircraft configuration with a single mainplane, in contrast to a biplane or other types of multiplanes, which have multiple wings. A monoplane has inherently the highest efficiency and lowest drag of any wing config ...
glider designed by Jack and Bill Laister for the
FAI Standard Class Competition classes in gliding, as in other sports, mainly exist to ensure fairness in competition. However the classes have not been targeted at fostering technological development as in other sports. Instead classes have arisen because of: * t ...
.Said, Bob: ''1983 Sailplane Directory,
Soaring Magazine ''SOARING'' is a magazine published monthly as a membership benefit of the Soaring Society of America. It was first published in 1937. The headquarters is in Hobbs, New Mexico. The magazine's article topics include safety issues and accounts of i ...
'', page 14. Soaring Society of America, November 1983. USPS 499-920
It first flew in 1971.


Design and development

Designed in the 1970s, the Nugget was intended to compete with the new European
fiberglass Fiberglass (American English) or fibreglass (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English) is a common type of fibre-reinforced plastic, fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened i ...
gliders that were beginning to appear, and as such incorporated mixed construction methods. The
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 ...
is built with a fiberglass cockpit area, with the fuselage aft of the wing trailing edge made from
aluminum Aluminium (or aluminum in North American English) is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol Al and atomic number 13. It has a density lower than that of other common metals, about one-third that of steel. Aluminium has ...
. The wing is of ''Chem-weld'' bonded aluminum construction, the bonding replacing rivets in an attempt to get a surface as smooth and wave-free as fiberglass. The wing employs a Wortmann FX 67 170/150
airfoil An airfoil (American English) or aerofoil (British English) is a streamlined body that is capable of generating significantly more Lift (force), lift than Drag (physics), drag. Wings, sails and propeller blades are examples of airfoils. Foil (fl ...
and has flaps. The long span flaps serve both as speed-range drag reducing camber changing devices and full deflection high-lift/high-drag landing flaps. The aircraft can carry up to of water ballast in a center fuselage tank, located at the
center of gravity In physics, the center of mass of a distribution of mass in space (sometimes referred to as the barycenter or balance point) is the unique point at any given time where the weighted relative position of the distributed mass sums to zero. For ...
. The landing gear is a retractible monowheel. Even though several sources report that the LP-15 was
type certified A type certificate signifies the airworthiness of a particular category of aircraft, according to its manufacturing design (''type design''). Certification confirms that the aircraft of a new type intended for serial production is in compliance w ...
, no type certificate was ever filed for it and all aircraft are registered as ''Experimental-Racing'', ''Experimental-Exhibition'' or ''Experimental-Amateur-built''. The ''LP'' in the designation indicates ''Laister Products'' and the model number is the wingspan in metres.


Operational history

As of January 2016 there were still 9 LP-15 Nuggets registered in the USA.


Aircraft on display

*
National Soaring Museum The National Soaring Museum (NSM) is an aviation museum whose stated aim is to preserve the history of motorless flight. It is located in Big Flats Town, New York, on top of Harris Hill near Elmira. The NSM is the Soaring Society of America's ...
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Specifications (LP-15)


See also


References


External links


Photos of the LP-15 in the National Soaring MuseumVideo of an LP-15 Nugget in soaring flight
{{Laister aircraft 1970s United States sailplanes LP-15 Aircraft first flown in 1971