VEF JDA-10M

VEF JDA-10M
VEF JDA-10M at the Spilve airport, Riga.
Role	Multi-purpose, light bomber
Manufacturer	VEF
Designer	Jānis Akermans
First flight	1939
Primary user	Latvia
Number built	1

The VEF JDA-10M was a Latvian twin-engine, multi-purpose aircraft built in 1939 by VEF. It remains the only twin-engine aircraft ever built in Latvia. The builder of JDA-10M was American-Latvian engineer Jānis D. Akermanis (John.D.Akerman), a professor at the University of Minnesota.

Design and development

Construction started in 1937, but the first flight of the JDA-10M was in September 1939. After the beginning of the Second World War it was planned to transform airplane into a light bomber for military purposes. This work was halted by the Soviet occupation of Latvia in June 1940. Only one example was built and its fate remains unknown.

The VEF JDA-10M was of primarily wood construction, with fixed conventional landing gear.^[1]

Specifications (JDA-10M)

Data from Latvia's Little Hawk ^[2]

General characteristics

• Crew: 2
• Capacity: 4?
• Length: 9 m (29 ft 6 in)
• Wingspan: 12.4 m (40 ft 8 in)
• Height: 3.3 m (10 ft 10 in)
• Wing area: 24 m² (260 sq ft)
• Empty weight: 1,680 kg (3,704 lb)
• Max takeoff weight: 2,800 kg (6,173 lb)
• Powerplant: 2 × Armstrong Siddeley Cheetah IX 7-cyl. air-cooled radial piston engines, 261 kW (350 hp) each

Performance

• Maximum speed: 350 km/h (217 mph; 189 kn)
• Range: 560 km (348 mi; 302 nmi)
• Service ceiling: 6,800 m (22,310 ft)
• Rate of climb: 3.85 m/s (758 ft/min)

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to VEF aircraft.