Monoplane

KAI KT-1 Woong Bee

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Development was initiated under the KTX program as a single-engined turboprop, basic training aircraft for the Republic of Korea Air Force in 1988 using the CATIA computer program to completely develop the aircraft, the first of its class. It was jointly developed by KAI and the Agency for Defence Development (ADD).

Nine prototypes were built on June 1991 with the first flight of the KT-1 occurring on November 1991 for static and fatigue testing. In 1995, the project was officially named ‘Woongbi’. In 1998 the final test flight was performed. The KT-1 is the first completely indigenous Korean aircraft ever developed. In 1999, a contract was signed for eighty-five aircraft with provisions for an additional twenty between Korea Aerospace Industries and the Republic of Korea. The first KT-1 Woongbi was handed over to the Republic of Korea Air Force in 2000 with the delivery of the eighty-five aircraft being completed in 2002. The Republic of Korea Air Force received 85 KT-1s and 20 KA-1s.

KT-1 can be equipped with either an analog or ‘glass’ cockpit configuration. Both types are employed by the Republic of Korea Air Force.

KAI exported seven KT-1Bs plus spare parts to Indonesia in April 2003 under a 60 million USD contract, and five more in May 2005. A KT-1B was lost during training 24-Jun-2010 .

In a press release held in Sacheon, South Korea on March 8, 2006, KAI stated that it will export more than 150 improved versions of the KT-1 to various countries in Central America and Southeast Asia. The improved export version of the KT-1 will be called KT-1C.

As of June, 2007, South Korea and Turkey have successfully negotiated for a contract of exporting 40(+15) KT-1, as well as modular armor technology of K2 Black Panther for Turkey’s future indigenous MBT, to Turkey for KRW₩500,000,000,000 (approximately US$540,000,000).

A statement published by Chungwadae, the South Korean Presidential website, on 26 January 2010, said that India and South Korea had agreed, as part of upgrading their partnership to a ‘strategic relationship’, form a joint committee in the first half of 2010. The statement added that this committee will facilitate an offer from Seoul to supply up to 60 KT-1 trainers to meet Indian Air Force requirements. However, India signed the contract with Pilatus to supply 75 PC-7.

On November 6th 2012, KAI and the Peruvian Air Force has successfully negotiated a $200 million contract for 20 KT-1Ps (10 KT-1 trainers and 10 KA-1 armed counterinsurgency variants) including some offset and technologies transfers for an approximate amount of US$208 millions. KAI will provide the first 4 airplanes by 2014 and the rest will be assembled at SEMAN (Maintenance air wing of the Peruvian Air Force).

Peru reported on 19 November 2013 having set up its KT-1 family assembly plant at Las Palmas Air Base in Lima, and plans to begin final assembly work on 16 planes beginning in March 2014. The first flight of a KT-1P for Peru took place on 19 Febuary 2014. Korean Aerospace Industries (KAI) announced on 21 May 2014 it started the production of the KT-1 Woongbi for the Peruvian Air Force.

Variants:

KTX-1 Yeo-myung
Prototype primary trainer each with a different engine fitted, six built.

KA-1
An armed advanced trainer with light attack and forward air control capabilities. Several new features unique to the KA-1 are head-up-display and up-front control panel, MFD panels, and five hardpoints, two under each wing and one under the fuselage. The hardpoints may be equipped with rocket launcher, gun pods or AIM-9 Sidewinder missiles.

KT-1B
Export version for Indonesia.

KT-1C
Improved, armed export version equipped with a centreline forward looking infrared pod. The KT-1C may also be equipped with a 12.7 mm gun pod, chaffes, flares, training missiles, rockets or unguided bombs.

KT-1T
Export version for Turkey.

KT-1P
Export version for Peru.

Gallery

Specifications:

KT-1
Engine: 1 × Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-62, 950 hp (708 kW)
Wingspan: 10.59 m (34 ft 9 in)
Wing area: 16.01 sq.m (172.3 sq ft)
Length: 10.26 m (33 ft 8 in)
Height: 3.68 m (12 ft 1 in)
Empty weight: 1,910 kg (4,210 lb)
Max. takeoff weight: 2,540 kg (5,600 lb)
Maximum speed: 574 km/h (310 knots, 357 mph) (IAS)
Range: 1,333 km (720 nmi, 828 mi) at 7,620 m (25,000 ft), max internal fuel
Service ceiling: 11,580 m (38,000 ft)
Rate of climb: 16.2 m/s (3,180 ft/min)
Endurance: 3 h
Crew: 2 in tandem

Koppen Skyfarer

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Otto Koppen left Ford to join the faculty of MIT, and in 1938, he decided that the time was ripe for an easy to fly airplane, so while teaching at MIT, he designed and set up a company to produce the Skyfarer, a two seat, two control monoplane. Koppen felt the Skyfarer needed no rudder, since its large twin vertical stabilizers were widely spaced on the tail out of the slipstream. In the air, the ball stayed centered at all times. In fact, the Skyfarer was so easy to fly that a complete novice was once taught the basics during only 50 minutes in the airplane. Twenty five Skyfarers were built; then World War II began, the Government requisitioned aluminum and production stopped.

Kopcsa 1913 Monogyroplane

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In 1913 Romanian émigré Alexander Kopcsa (often found written as Kopesa and Kopsca, his original Romanian name was Alexandru Copcea), living in Chicago, invented this large flying machine (span 50 feet and length 40 feet), intended to be used in an attempt to fly across the Atlantic Ocean. The 170 hp engine was to turn two vertical and two horizontal propellers.

Koolhoven FK.58

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Dutch single seat fighter aircraft. The NV Koolhoven Vliegtuigen of Waalhaven, near Rotterdam, built the prototype F.K.58 within two months of completion of the design, and it flew for the first time on July 17, 1938, bearing the civil registration PH ATO. Designed by Dr Erich Schatzki, formerly of Fokker, to meet a French requirement, the F.K.58 had plywood covered wooden wings and fixed tail surfaces; a metal and fabric-covered steel tube fuselage; and metal framed fabric covered wing and tail control surfaces. A total of 450 litres (99 Imperial gallons) of fuel was carried internally, and the 1080 hp Hispano Suiza 14Aa 14 cylinder two row radial engine gave it a top speed of 483 km/h (300 mph).
This prototype was demonstrated to the French authorities at the Centre d’Essais du Materiel Aeden at Villacoublay on October 10, 1938, and an order for 50 aircraft followed in January 1939. Intended for use by the Armee de l’Air in French Indo China, they were to be powered by, 1030 hp GnomeRhone 14N39 14 cylinder radials and designated F.K.58A. Deliveries began in mid June 1939, and 17 were delivered within the next three months, of which the first four retained the Hispano Suiza powerplant, the other 13 being F.K.58As. However, due to inadequate production facilities, the small Koolhoven factory was not able to complete the French order. The construction of 10 French F.K.58As was sub contracted to SABCA in Belgium, but although the airframes had been completed when Germany invaded that country in 1940, their Gnome Rhone engines had not been delivered from France.
Following the first flight of a second Hispano powered prototype (PH AVA) on February 14, 1939, the Netherlands government in the following month ordered 36 F.K.58s, to be powered by 1080 hp Bristol Taurus III engines; but here again engine supply problems intervened, and Koolhoven was unable to complete any of the order for the Luchtvaartafdeling (Dutch air force). The production line and the second prototype were destroyed in a Luftwaffe air attack, the first prototype having already been lost in a crash in January 1940.
Thus the only operational F.K.58s were those supplied to the Armee de l’Air. Armed with four 7.5 mm (0.29 in) FN Browning machine guns, in two underwing fairings outboard of the main undercarriage legs, most of them were deployed by patrouilles de protection in May 1940, in defence of such towns as Aulnat, Caen, Clermont Ferrand, Cognac and La Rochelle. For a short time, they were among the Luftwaffe’s most cosmopolitan opponents, for these Dutch fighters with French engines and Belgian guns were often flown by Polish pilots.

F.K.58A
Span: 10.97 m (36 ft)
Length: 8.68 m (28 ft 51 in)
Gross weight: 2750 kg (6065 lb)
Maximum speed: 475 km/h (295 mph).

Koolhoven F.K.55

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The prototype of the F.K.55 was a contra propelled fighter with many innovations.

A high performance fighter with retractable gear, the F.K55 was one of the highlights at the Paris Air Salon of 1936.

A second test flight prototype had been build and flown, but the project was delayed because priority was given to more conventional fighters.