BLANIK

BLANIK

Plane & Pilot

Wednesday, September 10, 2008 at 12:00 AM ET

Verified

Edited By: Omar Filipović

Key Takeaways:

The L13 Blanik, a popular two-seat, all-metal glider first built in 1958, evolved into the L23 Super Blanik.
The L23 Super Blanik retains the L13's excellent flying and maintenance characteristics while featuring improvements such as a T-tail, swiveling tail wheel, and enhanced canopy for better visibility.
The L23 is approved for all stages of flight training, from basic to advanced cross-country, aerobatic, stunt, and instrument flying, and is exclusively used by the USAF Academy.
Blanik also produces a range of other glider models, including the high-performance LAK-series for racing and motorgliding.

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The original L13 Blanik was built in 1958 and several thousands of them are flying worldwide. The two-seat, all-metal L13 evolved into the L23 Super Blanik. The new glider retains the excellent flying and maintenance characteristics of the L13, while visibility and handling are further refined. Among the many improvements are the new T-tail (to minimize damage during land-outs), the swiveling tail wheel (for easier ground handling) and the new canopy (enhancing visibility to the sides and back). The L23 has been approved for all stages of flight training from basic to advanced cross-country, aerobatic, stunt and instrument flying. Removable wingtip extensions of one meter each may be installed. The USAF Academy uses the Blanik gliders exclusively. Blanik also makes the LAK-17A in the 15- to 18-meter racing category, the LAK-17AT motorglider, the LAK-19 standard class racer, the LAK-19T motorglider and the LAK-20 two-place glider.