The Lanzius L II was a single-seat fighter designed and built in the United States around 1918. The sole prototype is believed to have been tested at McCook Field.
| L II | |
|---|---|
| Role | Fighter Type of aircraft |
| National origin | United States |
| Manufacturer | Lanzius Aircraft Co, New York NY. |
| Designer | George Lanzius |
| Number built | 6 |
| Developed from | Lanzius L I (Variable Speed Aeroplane) |
George Lanzius, an immigrant from Holland, founded the Lanzius Aircraft Company in New York, to develop his inventions for variable-camber and variable-incidence wings. Lanzius first designed and built a two-seat aircraft under a US Signal Corps contract in 1917, named the Lanzius Variable Speed Aeroplane (aka L I). His second aircraft, the L II, was a single-seater derived from the L I also featuring the cable operated variable-camber and incidence.[1]
The two-bay wings had external trusses over the upper main-spars and under the lower main spars and the variable-camber and incidence were operated by cables and pulleys, with incidence variable from 0° to +15°. Power was supplied by a variety of engines but principally by a 350 hp (260 kW) Packard 1A-1237 V-12 in-line water-cooled engine.[2] During a test flight the engine failed and the L II crashed. Meanwhile, in April 1918, four similar aircraft were ordered, powered by 400 hp (300 kW) Liberty L-12 water-cooled V-12 engines. The first of these was destroyed after a structural failure in flight killed Lanzius test pilot L.E. Holt. The United States Army Air Service (USAS) rejected the remaining three aircraft and returned them to Lanzius.[1]
Data from The Complete Book of Fighters [4][3]
General characteristics
Performance