Lockspeiser LDA-01
The Lockspeiser LDA-01 was a British seven-tenths scale research and development tandem wing aircraft, which was designed and built by test pilot and engineer David Lockspeiser to prove a concept for a low-cost utility transport.
Design and development
The LDA-01 was a single-seat tandem-wing monoplane, fabric covered with metal construction. The foreplane had a common design to the separately made port and starboard wings of the main plane, giving it half the area. The intention was to reduce the number of spare parts needed by re-using the same wing component interchangeably in each location. The main wings were mounted at the rear-end of the box structure fuselage and the fore wing was attached underneath the front. The fuselage was fitted initially with a four-wheeled landing gear and was designed to be fitted with a detachable payload container to allow easy conversion between roles. The landing gear was changed later in development to a more conventional tricycle configuration. It was powered by a rear-mounted pusher engine. The LDA-01 G-AVOR first flew on 24 August 1971 at Wisley in Surrey, under the power of an 85 hp Continental C85 piston engine, but was later refitted with a more powerful Lycoming O-320 engine.The aircraft, and had been renamed the Boxer 500, was being modified to planned production configuration by Brooklands Aerospace at Old Sarum Airfield when it was destroyed in a fire on 16 January 1987.