Let L-33 Solo
The Let L-33 Solo is a Czech shoulder-wing, single-seat, glider, designed by Marian Meciar and Vaclav Zajic, and produced by Let Kunovice. The L-33 first flew in 1992 and remained in production through 2012, supplied as a ready-to-fly aircraft.
Design and development
The L-33 was a developed as the single-seat "natural step" for early solo students to fly after dual training on the two-seat LET L-23 Super Blaník. The L-33 features a cantilever wing, a T-tail, a single-seat enclosed cockpit under a bubble canopy and fixed monowheel gear.The semi-monocoque design is made from flush riveted aluminum sheet. The rudder is covered with doped aircraft fabric. Its span, semi-tapered wing employs a Wortmann FX-60-17A11-182 airfoil at the wing root, transitioning to an FX-60-126 at the wing tip. The wing has an area of and mounts top surface Schempp-Hirth-style air brakes.
The L-33 was a competitor in the IGC World Class sailplane design competition, but lost to the Polish Politechnika Warszawska PW-5. The design is type certified to JAR 22 in Argentina, Canada, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States.