Kubicki Ikub I
The Kubicki Ikub I, which some sources refer to as the Ikub Ia, was a Polish glider built to compete in the first Polish glider contest. It was placed third behind two Karpiński SL.1 Akars but gained the second prize and also made what may have been the first nighttime glider flight.
Design and development
Reports of the first German glider contest, held at the Wasserkuppe in the late summer of 1920, generated considerable interest in Poland, leading to the First Polish Glider Contest at Czarna Góra between 30 August and 13 September 1923. The contest was not a great success, limited by novice designers and pilots and a poor site, but the SL.1 Akar was by far the most successful design. The Ikub I, essentially an unpowered but otherwise conventional parasol wing monoplane, gained the second prize.The Ikub I was an all-wood aircraft. Its one-piece, twin spar wing had a rectangular centre-section and tapered outwards and was covered overall with fabric. It was supported over the fuselage on four near-vertical steel-tube struts and braced with lift wires from the lower fuselage longerons to the spars and with landing wires from a cabane over the fuselage.
Its fuselage was a simple, rectangular section, ply-covered structure with a single-seat, open cockpit under the wing leading edge. The empennage was fabric-covered and wire-braced, with a curved fin carrying a broad, curved rudder. The tailplane was mounted on top of the fuselage, with generous, split elevators. The Ikub had a fixed conventional undercarriage, with its wheels on a single axle mounted on short, steel tube V-struts. A central skid guarded against nose-overs.