The Letov Š-14 was a single-seat, single-engine aircraft, designed and built in

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

in the early 1920s. Originally intended as a

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 ...

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 The Letov Š-13 was a single-seat, single-engine fighter aircraft designed and built in Czechoslovakia in the early 1920s. A biplane, it had aerodynamically thick wings which were originally cantilever structures, though interplane struts were l ...

, sharing its Škoda licence-built 300 hp (224 kW) Hispano-Suiza 8Fb water-cooled V-8 engine but not its thick

airfoil An airfoil (American English) or aerofoil (British English) is the cross-sectional shape of an object whose motion through a gas is capable of generating significant lift, such as a wing, a sail, or the blades of propeller, rotor, or tur ...

wings. Like the Š-13, it was intended as a single-seat

fighter aircraft. It was of mixed construction, with wooden wings and a metal-framed

fuselage The fuselage (; from the French ''fuselé'' "spindle-shaped") is an aircraft's main body section. It holds crew, passengers, or cargo. In single-engine aircraft, it will usually contain an engine as well, although in some amphibious aircraft t ...

. The wings, mounted without stagger, were straight edged with a constant

chord Chord may refer to: * Chord (music), an aggregate of musical pitches sounded simultaneously ** Guitar chord a chord played on a guitar, which has a particular tuning * Chord (geometry), a line segment joining two points on a curve * Chord ( ...

and blunt

wingtip A wing tip (or wingtip) is the part of the wing that is most distant from the fuselage of a fixed-wing aircraft. Because the wing tip shape influences the size and drag of the wingtip vortices, tip design has produced a diversity of shap ...

s. It was a single bay biplane with a pair of

interplane strut In aeronautics, bracing comprises additional structural members which stiffen the functional airframe to give it rigidity and strength under load. Bracing may be applied both internally and externally, and may take the form of strut, which act in ...

s 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 The trailing edge of an aerodynamic surface such as a wing is its rear edge, where the airflow separated by the leading edge meets.Crane, Dale: ''Dictionary of Aeronautical Terms, third edition'', page 521. Aviation Supplies & Academics, 199 ...

. The Hispano drove a two-blade

propeller A propeller (colloquially often called a screw if on a ship or an airscrew if on an aircraft) is a device with a rotating hub and radiating blades that are set at a pitch to form a helical spiral which, when rotated, exerts linear thrust upon ...

with a pointed

spinner Technology * Spinner (aeronautics), the aerodynamic cone at the hub of an aircraft propeller *Spinner (cell culture), laboratory equipment for cultivating plant or mammalian cells *Spinner (computing), a graphical widget in a GUI *Spinner (MIT Media ...

; it was cooled by a rectangular

radiator Radiators are heat exchangers used to transfer thermal energy from one medium to another for the purpose of cooling and heating. The majority of radiators are constructed to function in cars, buildings, and electronics. A radiator is always a ...

on each side of the fuselage between the wings. The fuselage was flat sided with rounded decking, tapering aft to the mid-mounted

tailplane A tailplane, also known as a horizontal stabiliser, is a small lifting surface located on the tail (empennage) behind the main lifting surfaces of a fixed-wing aircraft as well as other non-fixed-wing aircraft such as helicopters and gyroplan ...

, where the vertical tail was broad and low. The Š-14 landed on a fixed conventional tailskid undercarriage. The Š-14 first flew in 1924 but Letov quickly decided to concentrate their fighter development efforts on the

Letov Š-20 The Letov Š-20 was a fighter aircraft produced in Czechoslovakia during the 1920s. Design and development The Letov Š-20 was a conventional, single-bay biplane with unstaggered wings, braced by N-struts. In overall appearance, it greatly resem ...

which flew the following year. Instead, the Š-14 was rebuilt as a

cantilever A cantilever is a rigid structural element that extends horizontally and is supported at only one end. Typically it extends from a flat vertical surface such as a wall, to which it must be firmly attached. Like other structural elements, a cant ...

monoplane 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 planes. A monoplane has inherently the highest efficiency and lowest drag of any wing confi ...

to take part in the Third Speed Contest of 1924. At that event it recorded a speed of .

Specifications (biplane)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Letov S-14 1920s Czechoslovakian fighter aircraft Letov aircraft Single-engined tractor aircraft Parasol-wing aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1924