Latécoère 225
| {{Infobox aircraft begin
| name=Latécoère 225 | image= | caption= }}{{Infobox aircraft type | type=Microlight amphibious flying boat | national origin=France | manufacturer=Latécoère (La societe industrielle d'aviation Latécoère, SILAT) | designer=Nono Larsen | first flight=18 July 1984 | introduced= | retired= | status= | primary user= | more users= | produced= | number built=1 | program cost= | unit cost= | developed from= | variants with their own articles= }} |
The Latécoère 225 was an unusual single seat canard microlight amphibian, with a swept wing, and of pusher configuration. It first flew in 1984 but was not put into production.
Design and development
Before World War II Latécoère was a prolific aircraft manufacturer, particularly known for large flying boats. Post-war they produced many projects but no new designs were built and flown for almost 40 years. By the mid-1950s they had diversified, with a wide range of technical products, many with their own Latécoère type number. Some of these numbers duplicated those of earlier aircraft, for example the Latécoère 300 was an early 1930s flying boat but a 1960s high voltage circuit breaker. Just one of their diversifications produced an aircraft; the Latécoère 225 ultralight shares its number with a post-war four engine bomber project.
The Latécoère 225, or Latécoère Laté 225 is an unusual aircraft in many ways, a low powered, single seat microlight amphibian of swept wing, canard, pusher, pod and boom configuration. Design was under way by 1983 and the unflown aircraft appeared at the Hanover and Cannes airshows of 1984. The first flight followed that July.
The Laté 225's airframe is of composite construction. Its high wing is swept at 13° and has constant chord. There are long chord end plate fins on the wing tips, rounded at the front but increasing in depth and with a vertical trailing edge that projects aft of the wing. The lower trailing edge of these fins is diagonally hinged to provide roll control. The wing is mounted on a boom which mounts the pusher engine at its rear end and reaches forward beyond the nose, where it carries an unswept, rectangular canard. This has an elevator for pitch control.
The flat sided pod fuselage is attached to the underside of the boom, with a glazed, single seat cabin forming the blunt nose. An inset rudder at the rear provides roll control. A single lift strut on each side braces the wing to the mid-lower fuselage. The underside of the pod is formed into a single step hull, equipped with a water rudder. The Laté 225 has an unusual tricycle undercarriage; the nosewheel retracts conventionally but the mainwheels, housed in fairings and fuselage mounted on cantilever legs, hinge upwards for landings on water, when they act as lateral stabilisers.
The Laté 225 was originally powered by an 18 kW, (24 hp) flat-twin two stroke engine but this was soon replaced by a 20 kW (30 hp) KFM 107er. It was undergoing tests in early 1985 but its subsequent career was either short or mostly unrecorded. At some point the design was acquired by SERLAG, who renamed it the SERLAG 225EX.
Aircraft on display
The Latécoère 225 prototype F-WZLM, renamed as the SERLEG 225EX, is on display at the Musée Historique de l'Hydraviation at Biscarrosse, once Latécoère's seaplane base.
Specifications
{{Aircraft specs
|ref=Ultralight and Microlight Aircraft of the World, Jane's All the World's Aircraft 1985/6
|prime units?=met
|genhide=
|crew=1
|capacity=
|length m=4.95
|length note=
|span m=8.03
|span note=Canard span 2.90 m (9 ft 6 in)
|height m=2.15
|height note=
|wing area sqm=11.85
|wing area note=wing alone; canard area 1.85 m² (20 sq ft)
|aspect ratio=5.4
|airfoil=
|empty weight kg=127
|empty weight note=
|gross weight kg=
|gross weight lb=
|gross weight note=
|max takeoff weight kg=258
|max takeoff weight note=
|fuel capacity=23 L (6.1 US gal; 5.1 Imp gal)
|more general=
|eng1 number=1
|eng1 name=JPX PUL 425
|eng1 type=twin cylinder, horizontally opposed, air-cooled two-stroke
|eng1 hp=24
|eng1 note=at 4,500 rpm
|power original=
|more power=
|prop blade number=2
|prop name=
|prop dia m=
|prop dia ft=
|prop dia in=
|prop dia note=
|perfhide=
|max speed kmh=120
|max speed note=
|cruise speed kmh=85
|cruise speed note=economic
|stall speed kmh=45
|stall speed note=
|never exceed speed kmh=
|never exceed speed mph=
|never exceed speed kts=
|never exceed speed note=
|minimum control speed kmh=
|minimum control speed mph=
|minimum control speed kts=
|minimum control speed note=
|range km=
|range miles=
|range nmi=
|range note=
|ferry range km=
|ferry range miles=
|ferry range nmi=
|ferry range note=
|endurance=
|ceiling m=
|ceiling ft=
|ceiling note=
|g limits=
|roll rate=
|glide ratio=
|climb rate ms=2.7
|climb rate ftmin=
|climb rate note=maximum at sea level
|time to altitude=
|lift to drag=
|wing loading kg/m2=18.8
|wing loading note=maximum
|power/mass=6.9 W/kg (0.042 hp/lb) maximum at MTOW
|more performance=
- Take-off distance on grass: 80 m (262 ft
- Take-off distance on water: 150 m (492 ft)
|avionics=
}}
{{aircontent
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References
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External links
- [https://www.airport-data.com/aircraft/F-PZLM.html Photographs of the Prototype at the Musée Historique de l'Hydraviation]
{{Latécoère aircraft}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Latecoere 225}}
Category:1980s French ultralight aircraft