The Larkin KC-3 Skylark was a single-engine amphibious two-seater homebuilt aircraft, a pusher-style design with a single 100 hp Volkswagen air-cooled engine above and behind the fully enclosed cockpit. The booms are at¬tached to the wings and connected at the rear, between twin vertical stabilizers, by one single-elevator surface. One unique feature of the airplane’s structure is the use of a square tubular aluminum keel which is responsible for the loads from the landing gear and the main fuselage. The cockpit seats two occupants in side-by-side configuration, with a large Plexiglas canopy curving around both occupants. The landing gear is a tricycle arrangement with the nose gear positioned at the foremost point of the nose and the two main gear semi-recessed into teardrop-shaped fairings on the lower sides. For amphibious operations, there is an optional V-shaped lower hull of fiberglass which can be added.
The Skylark KC-3 first flew in 1972 and was registered N1LA.
Dec 1973
My father, Tony Austin, worked for Larkin Aircraft in the late 1960s-early ’70s. He collaborated on the engineering and fabrication of the fuselage and other structural components of the one prototype. I had opportunity as a boy to witness the Skylark’s construction and first flight, and have sat in the actual aircraft. I never flew in it as it was only ever piloted by the designer, Keith Larkin himself, to my knowledge. Thad Austin
Engine 65-hp Volkswagen. Wingspan 26’6” Length 19’6” Gross Wt. 1246 lb Empty Wt. 790 lb Fuel capacity 17 USG Top speed 115 mph Cruise 105 mph. Stall 42 mph Climb rate 550 fpm Ceiling 12,000 ft Takeoff run 600 ft Landing roll 400 ft Range 525 miles Seats: 2
Arthur Lardin, W A McCurdy, E Smith, of New Castle DE, USA were all by employees of Bellanca Corp who in 1934 built the AL-1 NX12Y c/n 1 as an off-hours project.
A single place, open cockpit monoplane, power was an 85hp DH Gypsy.
Two Lanzius L II were built in 1919 to the Air Service for evaluation (AS40034 and 40036). Contracts for two more (AS40036 and 40037) were assigned but not built.
The 1917 L I Variable Speed Aeroplane was a two-place open cockpit biplane powered by a 140hp Duesenberg.
The 1918 Variable Speed Aeroplane was a single-place open cockpit biplane and a monocoque fuselage and a three-quarter-span beam-type bracing on the top wing. Likely an OX-5 or Hisso for power, or with a less-rounded fuselage and with that truss arrangement duplicated on the underside of the lower wing.
This Argentine single-seater motor glider was designed and is being built by Senor Augusto Lanzalone of Rosario in Santa Fe province, who has also formed the Asociacion Argentina de Constructores de Aviones Experimentales – Avex for aircraft like the Aulanz. Not only has Senor Lanzalone designed and built the engine for it – a 30hp Lanzalone two-cylinder two-stroke inverted inline motor of 700cc – he has evolved his own special alloy for the construction of the airframe. This is known as Alcusing, and consists of aluminium with portions of copper, nickel, magnesium, silicon and chrome; the two-blade variable pitch propeller is also made of this material.
The Aulanz is a conventional low-wing monoplane of semi-monocoque Alcusing structure, with the engine in the nose and a retractable rubber-sprung monowheel under the wing leading edge, plus a tailskid. The total fuel capacity is 20 litres (4.4 Imp gallons). By the spring of 1973 the prototype’s fuselage and tail unit were completed, and construction of the remainder had been proceeding slowly.
Span: 40 ft 8.25 in Length: 17 ft 8.5 in Height: 6 ft 1.75 in Wing area: 125.9 sqft Aspect ratio: 13.1 Max weight: 617 lb
