Era

LKB KB-6 Matajur / Letov KB-6 Matajur

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Designed by an amateur design group. The Konstrukeijski Letalskt Zveze Slovenije, comprising students of the Ljubljana Technical High School, the KB-6 Matajur flew for the first time on 4 June 1952.

The first prototype Matajur was powered by a 136 hp Regnier 4 L00 engine, but the second prototype and production aircraft have been powered by the 160 hp Walter Minor engine.

It was produced in quantity by the Letov factory at Ljubljana.

Engine: Regnier 4L00, 136 hp
Wing span: 34 ft 9 in
Length: 27 ft 5 in
Height: 7 ft 1 in
Empty weight: 1453 lb
Loaded weight: 2159 lb
Max speed: 138 mph at SL
Cruise: 124 mph
ROC: 689 fpm
Service ceiling: 14,800 ft
Seats: 2

Engine: 160 hp Walter Minor 6-III
Wing span: 34 ft 9 in
Wing area: 150.7 sq.ft
Length: 27 ft 5 in
Height: 7 ft 1 in
Empty weight: 1453 lb
Loaded weight: 2185 lb
Max speed: 138 mph at SL
Cruise: 114 mph
ROC: 699 fpm
Range: 441 mi
Seats: 2

Lessing, Kurt

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Kurt Lessing migrated from Dresden to Australia after WWII. He was a very skilled machinist and proceeded to build this somewhat strange machine more or less in secret in his workshop at Woodend Vic.

In addition Kurt built a launch ramp 20 metres high with winches and an 800 metre catapult. He died before completion of the project.

Leisure Sports S.5 / Airborne Designs Supermarine S.5

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Ray Hilborne of Leisure Sports designed and built a full-scale S.5 replica, G-BDFF. Construction by Aviation Design Bureau under J.Hall took place at Thruxton Airport, Hampshire, over a 2.5 year period, and registered G-BDFF cn ADB-1 on June 13, 1975 the aircraft began preliminary water taxiing tests at Thorpe Water Park, Surrey, the same day.

The seaplane was not a true replica, although externally resembling the original S-5 it was basically an entirely different aircraft, while 50 % lighter than the original. The all-wood construction, loadings, systems and performance were different; other differences included a different wing section, smaller floats, water rudders, and a slightly wider cockpit and fuselage. Powerplant was a 210 hp Rolls-Royce Continental engine, driving a two-blade variable-pitch propeller. The replica had an overall weight reduction to an all-up weight of just 1,500 lb, less than 1/2 that of the original.
The first flight was made on Southampton Water, near Calshot, Hampshire by Captain Keith Sissons on August 28, 1975 and lasted 14 minutes.

The aircraft was wrecked on September 23, 1982, when due to an engine failure on takeoff it crashed into Thorpe Water Park, the wings and float supporting structure were destroyed. The remains were acquired by hotelier William ‘Bill’ Hosie of Newquay, Cornwall, who rebuilt the aircraft at Bodmin using only the rear fuselage of the original, and on April 17, 1985 the aircraft was registered to the Hosie family. Bill Hosie was killed May 23, 1987 near Falmouth when the rudder separated shortly after takeoff, followed by the tail surfaces.

Gallery

Lesher Teal

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The Lesher Teal, registered N4291C, was explicitly designed to break records in the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale Class C1a, for propeller-driven aircraft of less than 500-kg (1102-lb.) gross weight.

The Teal retained the Nomad’s Continental O-200A power and all-aluminum pusher configuration, this time in a single-seat layout. Its wingspan is a diminutive 23 ft. 10 in. (by contrast, a Piper J3’s span is 35 ft. 3 in.).

At one point of the Teal’s design, Ed, who weighed well over 200 lb., considered using a jockey pilot. Instead, not wanting to miss the fun, he decided this was a good incentive to lose some weight.

The Teal first flew in April 1965.

In August 1965, Lesher piloted it to the EAA Fly-In in Rockford, Illinois, where he was honored for his achievements. Then he began attacking the FAI records.

In 1967, Lesher and his Teal set a Class C1a speed record for a 500-km closed course at 181.55 mph. Later that year, he flew the Teal at 169.20 mph for a new 1000-km closed-course record. Before the year ended, Lesher and the Teal averaged 141.84 mph for a new closed-course record of 2000 km.

In 1968, a loss of power brought the Teal to an emergency landing, and considerable damage, in a Michigan field. After a rebuild, Lesher and his Teal set another FAI record in 1970, this one for a closed-circuit distance of 1554.29 miles. In 1973, he and the Teal set a 3-km speed record of 173.101 mph as well as a 15-25-km record of 169.134 mph. Finally, the pair set an FAI C1a record for straight-line distance, officially 1835.459 miles, by traveling from Florida to Arizona.

For these record-breaking achievements, Lesher earned the FAI’s Louis Blériot Medal four times, in 1967, 1970, 1973 and 1975. He was inducted into the Michigan Aviation Hall of Fame in 1988.

The Lesher Teal has resided in the EAA Adventure Museum since 2002.

Lesher SN-1 Nomad

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The 1946 Stinson 106 Skycoach, one of Stinson’s products during Lesher’s time with this Wayne, Michigan, company. The Skycoach’s pusher propulsion, though, intrigued Lesher and he incorporated this feature into his home-built aircraft.

The Nomad was an all-aluminum side-by-side two-place pusher. Powered by a 100-hp Continental O-200A air-cooled flat-four placed immediately behind the cockpit, fed with air intakes at the wing roots, the Nomad made innovative use of a Dodge Flexidyne Coupling to dampen torsional vibration.

The wing was built as a single assembly with a very simple profile and no dihedral. The vee-tailed empennage and vertical fin in low position was meant to impair the Hartzell propeller’s efficiency as little as possible, while the vertical fin placed below helped to keep the propeller clear from the ground.

Construction began in 1959 and the Nomad, registered N1066Z, flew in October 1961 after 5000 hours of construction. Lesher and the plane took Grand Prize at the 1964 AC Spark Plug Rally.

The Nomad was followed by the better-known Lesher Teal, which also remained a prototype.

Lesher SN-1 Nomad N1066Z

Lesher, Edgar J.

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Edgar J. Lesher, 1914 – 1998, earned an undergraduate degree in mathematics during the Great Depression, then did graduate studies in this subject and physics. Prior to World War II, he taught ground school for the Civilian Pilot Training Program and earned his own pilot’s license.

In 1942 Ed joined the University of Michigan’s Department of Aeronautical Engineering, where he taught until retirement in 1985. Ed Lesher was a professor of aeronautical engineering, who used breaks in his academic career to perform design work at Douglas, Stinson and Convair Aircraft.

Attendance at a fledgling Experimental Aircraft Association Fly-In in 1958 inspired Lesher to design and fabricate two aircraft of his own. One of them, the Lesher Teal, set several international records for speed and distance.
Ed also found time to do set design and act at the Ann Arbor Civic Theater and to sing in the Ann Arbor Civic Chorus.

Ed and his wife Margaret had ten children, including four sets of twins. Lesher died in 1998.

Lesh 1908 glider

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Lawrence J. Lesh made his first flight in a glider in Chicago in 1906 at the age of 14. In 1908 he had an accident with his own glider at Morris Park, New York, which confined him to hospital for over seven months. Though only a boy of 17 years, Lesh had done a great deal of experimental gliding from the age of 14. He held the world’s record, having made a flight of more than six miles in length over the St. Lawrence River, towed by a motorboat.