Daimler L15
| Daimler L15 | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Role | Light two seatsports aircraft/glider |
| National origin | Germany |
| Manufacturer | Daimler Aircraft Company |
| Designer | Hans Klemm |
| First flight | 1919 |
| Number built | 1 |
The Daimler L15, sometimes later known as the Daimler-Klemm L15 or the Klemm-Daimler L15 was an early two-seat low-powered light aircraft intended to popularise flying. In mid-career it flew as a glider.
By the end of the First World War, Hanns Klemm had moved from Dornier to the aircraft branch of Daimler Motors and had designed two prototype fighters, the Daimler L11 and L14. With military aviation ended by the terms of the Versailles Treaty, he turned to developing a low-power light aircraft. The 1919 Daimler L15 was a high cantilever wing aircraft with a 6 kW (7.5 hp) Indian motorcycle engine. Rather little detailed information on it seems to have survived; it had unusual rotating wingtips for roll control instead of ailerons and a single axle undercarriage. It suffered serious propeller damage in 1919, early in the testing programme. From then on Daimler and Klemm abandoned aviation; Klemm remained with Daimler, concentrating on streamlined racing cars and locomotives.
During 1920 some German aviation enthusiasts realised that, though Germany was forbidden by the allies to build aeroplanes, gliders were not included in that category, resulting in a series of competitions on the Wasserkuppe that became known as the Rhön contests. Perhaps stimulated by these events, Klemm proposed in 1922 that the L15 should be rebuilt as a glider and obtained approval from the Daimler management. The engine was demounted and replaced with a long, smooth nose, deliberately designed to be easily removable so that the engine could be reinstalled if desired. The pilot sat at the wing leading edge in a cockpit within the removable nose and there was a passenger cockpit between the two wing spars at about one third chord. The fuselage was formed from four longerons, positioned by formers and wire-braced into a rectangular section, but with rounded upper and lower fairings. Its smooth fuselage and cantilever wing, together with an empennage that had no external bracing, made it aerodynamically very clean for its time.
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