The Lehtovaara PIK-16 Vasama () is a Finnish

mid-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 ...

, single-seat,

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 ...

glider that was designed by Tuomo Tervo, Jorma Jalkanen and Kurt Hedstrom, who were students at the

Polyteknikkojen Ilmailukerho Polyteknikkojen Ilmailukerho (PIK) is the student flying club of the Aalto University. As well as a flying club, it develops light aircraft and gliders, often on a small scale but sometimes its designs have been produced in quantity. Approximately ...

(PIK) and produced by Lehtovaara.

Design and development

The PIK-16 is constructed from wood, with a

fibreglass Fiberglass (American English) or fibreglass ( Commonwealth English) is a common type of fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened into a sheet called a chopped strand mat, or woven into glass c ...

nose. The span wing employs a Wortmann FX-05-168 (14% modification)

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 ...

at the

wing root The wing root is the part of the wing on a fixed-wing aircraft or winged-spaceship that is closest to the fuselage,Peppler, I.L.: ''From The Ground Up'', page 9. Aviation Publishers Co. Limited, Ottawa Ontario, Twenty Seventh Revised Edition, 1 ...

, transitioning to a

NACA The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) was a United States federal agency that was founded on March 3, 1915, to undertake, promote, and institutionalize aeronautical research. On October 1, 1958, the agency was dissolved and its ...

63 (2)-165 at the

wing tip 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 sha ...

. The wing features

dive brake Dive brakes or dive flaps are deployed to slow down an aircraft when in a dive. They often consist of a metal flap that is lowered against the air flow, thus creating drag and reducing dive speed.Crane, Dale: ''Dictionary of Aeronautical Terms, ...

s. The prototype Vasama had V tail, but it was changed to

cruciform tail The cruciform tail is an aircraft empennage configuration which, when viewed from the aircraft's front or rear, looks much like a cross. The usual arrangement is to have the tailplane, horizontal stabilizer intersect the vertical tail somewhere ...

on production aircraft. A total of 56 PIK-16s were built. The aircraft was not

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 ...

but it did become the second most exported Finnish glider, surpassed only by the later PIK-20 series.

Operational history

The prototype PIK-16 set a Finnish national record for a triangle course of before it had even finished flight testing. The design won the OSTIV prize at the

World Gliding Championships The World Gliding Championships (WGC) is a gliding competitions, gliding competition held roughly every two years by the FAI Gliding Commission. The dates are not always exactly two years apart, often because the contests are always held in the sum ...

held at Junín, Buenos Aires Province,

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

in 1963, finishing third in the standard class.

Variants

;PIK-16a :Prototype with a

V-tail The V-tail or ''vee-tail'' (sometimes called a butterfly tail or Rudlicki's V-tailGudmundsson S. (2013). "General Aviation Aircraft Design: Applied Methods and Procedures" (Reprint). Butterworth-Heinemann. p. 489. , 9780123973290) of an aircraf ...

. ;PIK-16b :Revised design with a

, four built by the Finnish Aeronautical Association at the Jämi Flying School. ;PIK-16c :Third version

Aircraft on display

Finnish Aviation Museum The Finnish Aviation Museum (, ) is a museum specialising in aircraft, located near Helsinki Airport in Veromies, Vantaa, Finland. History The Aviation Museum Society () was founded on 4 December 1969. Opened in 1972, the museum was initially loc ...

Specifications (Pik-16 Vasama)

References

Citations

Bibliography

* * * * * * {{PIK aircraft 1960s Finnish sailplanes PIK aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1961 Mid-wing aircraft