HUNGARIAN GLIDERS
1933-2000

Type designation: Kócsag
Name: Kócsag
Designer: Zoltán JANKA
Class: Water-borne glider
General arrangement: Biplane, boathull fuselage, traditional tail unit
Crew: 1
First flight: -
Manufacturer: MOVERO, Gyöngyös
Number of built: 1



Short history:
In 1933 Zoltán Janka was called upon by the Motor Yacht Club of Budapest to design a glider which would be capable of launching from water by motorboat towing and would be able to land on water as well.
Janka designed an all wooden biplane glider with a boat-hull fuselage. The biplane solution had been chosen because of the necessary wing area calculated from the performance and speed of the available motorboat. The glider was constructed at the workshop of MOVERO (Aviation Section of the Hungarian Defense Association) in Gyöngyös.
The first trial was done on May 29, 1934, however the glider never left the water as the towing motorboat was not able to gain the calculated speed. Because of this failure the whole project was abandoned. The later fate of the glider is unknown.

Structure:  All wooden
   Wing:
Both wings consisted of two constant-chord half-panels with rounded wingtips, the lower ones were attached to the fuselage, the upper ones to each other. Both wings had two main spars and in front of the fore spar were covered by plywood, behind them by fabric. The wings were braced by wire and wooden trusses.
   Fuselage:
The whole fuselage was covered by plywood. Under the lower wing panels two small fixed floats supported the wings when sitting on water.
   Tail unit:
The tail unit elements were attached to the raised rear part of the fuselage.



Larger picture

Dimensions:
   Wing:
     Span, m: 11,5
     Area, m2: 30
     Aspect ratio: 8,8
     Chord (root), m: 1,4
     Chord (tip), m: 1,4
     Airfoil (root), m: ?
     Airfoil (mid-span), m: ?
     Airfoil (tip), m: ?
     Dihedral, degree: 0
     Sweep, degree: 0
     Washout: ?
   Aileron:
     Span, m: ?
     Mean chord, m: ?
     Total area, m2: cca. 3,6
     Balancing: ?
   Flap:
     Type: None
   Airbrakes:
     Type: None
   Horizontal stabilizer:
     Span, m: 2,6
     Area, m2: ?
   Elevator:
     Span, m: 2,6
     Area, m2: ?
     Airfoil: ?
     Balancing: ?
     Trim: ?
   Vertical stabilizer and rudder:
     Total area, m2: ?
     Rudder area, m2: ?
     Balancing: ?
   Fuselage:
     Length, m: 6,8
     Width, m: ?
     Height: ?
     Cross section, m2: ?
   Landing gear:
     Type: Boat hull with two support floats under the wing
     Wheel diameter, m: -
Masses:
   Wing, kg: ?
   Fuselage, kg: ?
   Tail unit, kg: ?
   Empty glider, kg: caa. 220
   Gross, kg: cca. 300
   Ballast, kg: None
   Wing loading, kg/m2: cca. 10
Speeds:
   VNE, km/h: ?
   Max. speed with open airbrakes, km/h: -
   Max. aerotow speed, km/h: ?
   Max. winch speed, km/h: -
   Max. speed in rough air, km/h: ?
   Stall speed, km/h: 40
Performance:
   Min. sink, m/s (at gliding speed, km/h): ?/?
   Best L/D (at gliding speed, km/h): ?/?
Start methods: Boat towing


Origin of data and 3-view drawing:
Jereb Gábor: Magyar vitorlázó repülőgépek, Műszaki Könyvkiadó, 1988, Budapest
(Gábor JEREB: Hungarian Gliders, Technical Publishing House, 1988, Budapest)

Gábor FEKECS E-mail: fekecs.gabor@t-online.hu