Silhouette challenge

[skytrain10]

Thanks Richard...a pig of a challenge seems quite appropriate in view of the latest flu pandemic! I thought it might make for an interesting challenge! I saw the aircraft at Cranfield in 1983 and thought (at the time) it was an Aeronca variant of some sort!

Moving on to your latest, it looks terribly familiar (think I came accross it quite recently) but can't recall what it is! Anyway lets start things moving. I am pretty sure I am wrong, but Thomas Morse YO-23?

[S'land]

I had completely forgotten about the 'flu epidemic when i made the comment.

Sorry skytrain10, it is not a Thomas Morse product.

[S'land]

OK, clue time. There were three of these units built and they all changed hands towards the end of the decade in which they were built.

[S'land]

Still no takers? Another clue. The challenge aircraft was powered by a 410 hp Fiat A.20 unit.

[carson1934]

It looks very much like a FIAT CR/10 but I don't think it is.
The FIAT engine you are mentioning was mostly used on hydroplanes
carson1934

[carson1934]

Sorry S'land please ignore my previous post.
I think it is a FIAT CR20/B two seater liaison version of the CR20...
carson1934

[chiglet]

Tail looks Macchi[ish] but I don't think that it is.....

[S'land]

Sorry carson1934 and chiglet, you both have the right continent, but the wrong country.

[carson1934]

If the country is wrong then the original engine can't be a FIAT A/20.....
carson1934

[S'land]

Sorry carson1934, but I have checked and the original engine was a Fiat A.20. The aircraft in question was not built in Italy.

[evansb]

Fabrica De Avione S.E.T. 10 ?

[S'land]

Sorry evansb, not from Romania either.

[evansb]

Was the mystery aircraft built in Czechoslovakia? Is it an Avia model?

[S'land]

Not from Avia, or indeed Czechoslovakia. However, Czechoslovakia had the same masters as the challenge aircraft's country for a while, although on a different footing.

[MReyn24050]

One from Austria perhaps? A Lampich's design?

[S'land]

Mel,
right country, but the wrong manufacturer. This is not from Wiener Neustadter. As far as I know Árpád Lampich had nothing to do with the design.

Richard.

[skytrain10]

Well this one has certainly proved a real challenge...and I am still struggling!

Would this be a Pintsch design? Tigerschwalbe??

[MReyn24050]

S'land's challenge

Richard
Hopfner HM.13/34 perhaps?

Mel

[S'land]

I was beginning to think that I had imagined this aeroplane.

Congratulations Mel, it is the Hopfner-Hirtenberger HM-13/34. Designed in 1934 as a fighter/trainer by Hopfner Flugzeugbau GmbH of Austria. In 1935 Hopfner was taken over by Hirtenberger Metallwarenfabrik A.G. and the aircraft was completed as the Hopfner-Hirtenberger HM-13/34. The power unit was a 410hp Fiat A.20. It did not arouse much interest with the “newly formed” German Luftwaffe who preferred to use German aircraft. However, three aircraft (Nr. 52 (OE-FAH/D), Nr. 53 (OE-FEH/D) and Nr. 54 (OE-FIH/D)) were built. After the Anschluss of 1938 these were absorbed into the German Luftwaffe. Their fate is unknown.

Mel has control.

[MReyn24050]

Next Challenge

Thanks Richard. That was a great challenge and really needed some digging.
This next one will not last long at all.
Mel