Harakka
Jamijarvi flight school · Finland · first flew 1945 · glider
The Harakka (Magpie) was a Finnish single-seat primary training glider, the aircraft that formed the backbone of Finland's post-war pilot training and sport aviation.
Recognition (WEFT)
| W — Wings | High-mounted, straight |
|---|---|
| E — Engines | 1 × none, embedded-mounted |
| F — Fuselage | Open lattice-framework fuselage boom behind a simple pod cockpit |
| T — Tail | Conventional |
WEFT is AircraftIQ's four-point recognition method — how it works.
Spot it by:
- Open lattice-framework fuselage boom behind a simple pod cockpit
- High strut-braced monoplane wing with no engine
- Skid undercarriage typical of a primary training glider
A bare open-framework fuselage boom carrying a simple pod cockpit under a strut-braced high wing, with no engine or streamlined skin, typical of 1940s primary training gliders.
Specifications
- The Harakka has a length of 5.72 m (19 ft).
- It has a wingspan of 10.6 m (35 ft).
- Its maximum speed is 117 km/h (73 mph).
- Typical crew: 1.
Figures are for the representative variant described above; marks differ. See how AircraftIQ sources figures.
History
Built over the winter of 1944-45 at the Jamijarvi flight school by Uuno E. Makela, E. O. Korhonen, O. Salmi and U. Hokkanen, based on the Soviet Antonov US-3 primary glider, the Harakka first flew in February 1945. About twenty-two were completed in all and twenty-eight were eventually registered, built by Finnish flying clubs in the immediate post-war years.
Variants
An improved, strengthened version designed in 1945-46 by Juhani Heinonen, Reino Hakkinen and Ilkka Lounamaa was named the PIK-7 Harakka II.
Where you'll see it
The Harakka trained a generation of Finnish glider pilots after the war; examples are preserved today in Finnish aviation museum collections.
Related aircraft
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