Cranwell CLA.4
Cranwell Light Aeroplane Club · United Kingdom · first flew 1926 · light aircraft
The Cranwell CLA.4 was a single-engined two-seat inverted sesquiplane designed and built for the 1926 Lympne trials by an amateur group from the RAF College Cranwell.
Recognition (WEFT)
| W — Wings | Mid-mounted, straight |
|---|---|
| E — Engines | 1 × piston, nose-mounted |
| F — Fuselage | Upper wing held well clear of the fuselage on two pairs of centre-section struts |
| T — Tail | Conventional |
WEFT is AircraftIQ's four-point recognition method — how it works.
Spot it by:
- Inverted sesquiplane with a smaller upper wing
- Upper wing held well clear of the fuselage on two pairs of centre-section struts
- Two open cockpits in tandem, at the leading and trailing edge of the upper wing
Unusually the upper wing is the smaller one, with ailerons on the lower wings only and single wide-chord, inward-leaning interplane struts. The fin and rudder resemble many de Havilland designs, though more rounded.
Specifications
- The Cranwell CLA.4 has a length of 6.8 m (22 ft).
- It has a wingspan of 8.33 m (27 ft).
- Its maximum speed is 105 km/h (65 mph).
- Typical crew: 2.
Figures are for the representative variant described above; marks differ. See how AircraftIQ sources figures.
History
It was one of the aircraft produced by the Cranwell Light Aeroplane club, whose chief designer was Nicholas Comper. Its upper wing had a span of 80 per cent of the lower and 83 per cent of its chord.
Variants
Two were entered at Lympne, and a third was amateur-built in Canada and flew until 1934. Some sources call the version flown with the Bristol Cherub the CLA.4A.
Where you'll see it
Engine problems kept one aircraft out of the trials, and the other was eliminated with a broken undercarriage. The aircraft flown by Comper was later sold into private ownership and flew until scrapped in 1933.
Related aircraft
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