Lockspeiser LDA

[Weaver]

Found a video about the Lockspeiser LDA-01 development, so thought I'd give it it's own thread, since I always really liked this project:

Video: https://youtu.be/SLewWbAltm8

Flight Global article: https://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1975/1975%20-%200753.html

David Lockspeiser's obituary: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/10863225/David-Lockspeiser-obituary.html

Air International Article:

Lockspeiser 1 by Harold Smith, on Flickr

Lockspeiser 2 by Harold Smith, on Flickr


Pictures posted by other people on a Secret Projects thread here: https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/threads/specialized-aircraft-for-aid-and-missionary-work.6305/

CANARD~C by Harold Smith, on Flickr

LDA-01-3V by Harold Smith, on Flickr

LDA-01 colour by Harold Smith, on Flickr

[PR19_Kit]

A cracking aeroplane, and it's got to be dead easy to scratchbuild, after all it's a box with wings!

[Rheged]

This is a classic example of a should have been!!

[Weaver]

Entry from Jane's 1980-1981 which gives lots of specs:

Lockspeiser LDA-01 Janes 1980-81 by Harold Smith, on Flickr

Posted on this thread, which is mostly about an R/C model of the aircraft: https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?2312728-Laddie%C2%92s-LOCKSPEISER-LDA-01

[Weaver]

I think this 3-view shows the Boxer 500, which was the full-size version of the smallest configuration:

LDA Boxer 500 by Harold Smith, on Flickr

Originally posted here: http://aviadejavu.ru/Site/Crafts/Craft32132.htm


This is the same configuration shown in this beautiful painting by Kai Choi, which appeared on this aviation art site: http://www.gava.org.uk/2013-gallery?start=60
(The painting sold for £1200!)

LDA-01 Boxer by Kai Choi by Harold Smith, on Flickr

[Old Wombat]

Biggest issue is the positioning of the canards - if they were further back & higher, it'd make a great spotter/FAC plane.

[Dizzyfugu]

Great find, I did not know this one! 

[Mossie]

Nice little machine, knew nothing about it other than its existence.  I can see it in Red Cross or UN markings

[Weaver]

Biggest issue is the positioning of the canards - if they were further back & higher, it'd make a great spotter/FAC plane.

Pulled this still off the video. It shows a three-seat helicopter-type front end for spotter work, that puts the seats in front of the canard. (Remember that the PDA-01 as flown was only a 70% technology demonstrator).

LDA spotter cabin by Harold Smith, on Flickr

[PR19_Kit]

Looks like they grafted an Optica cockpit onto it. 

[Mossie]

They shared the hangar at Brooklands (the fire sealed the fate of both types), so easy enough to take a saw when the Edgley guys are on their tea break.

[jcf]

Would an attack/gunship version be the Lockspeiser Despiser? 

[Weaver]

You could make some interesting light-attack variations on the LDA.

1. The large side door and wide CofG range make it a natural gunship. You could very easily put a 7.62mm minigun on it (probably two), but something with longer range would probably be preferable. The next step up is the GECAL .50 cal. The only problem there might be the drag from the long barrels on a relatively small aircraft. If it did prove to be a problem, then the simplest solution might be a light-alloy 'drag-tube' on the other side, much in the manner of Italian turrets in WWII.

2. The detachable pannier version of the fuselage provides an opportunity for a bomb-bay. You could leave the pannier off and fit a couple of NATO standard hardpoints in it, allowing two bombs to be carried with less drag than on wing hardpoints. More interestingly, you could certainly come up with a pannier that contained multiple tubes for submunitions, angled backwards as in a JP.233 or similar dispenser.

3. Fitting forward-firing weapons to the wings is complicated by the canard blocking the field of fire of half the inner wing and the low ground clearance of the canard itself. It isn't just a matter of the canard literally blocking the FoF, but also the safety-clearance between it's tip and the path that an errant rocket might take on leaving a main-wing-mounted pod. I think you could probably get a couple of 7-round pods onto the tips of the canard and couple of 18/19 round pods onto outer-wing hardpoints though.

4, Going back to guns, it might be possible to fit the full-fuselage version with one or two cannons under the centre-fuselage, with the gun being external and the ammo boxes internal, in the manner of some GSh-23 installations. Since the gun would be mounted a long way back, it might also be possible to use a long-barrelled weapon with significantly better range and muzzle velocity than normal aircraft guns, the long barrels also having the benefit of removing the need to protect the underside from muzzle-blast effects. One that occurs to me is the Rh.202 (the Marder MICV's gun), already used in an aircraft installation by the Spanish Army on their Bo.105s. This fires the 20x139mm round, which is WAY more powerful than the 20x110mm or 20x102mm rounds used in most aircraft guns, and would give a useful stand-off capability or a significant anti-light-armour capabilty (not both at the same time, of course).

[Weaver]

An article I've not seen before, posted on Twitter by Trev Clarke here:
https://twitter.com/clark_aviation/status/1585167343230992388?s=20&t=RnmpSkZMPkTFZtD5ItGOEw