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Hansa-Brandenburg W.20

The Hansa-Brandenburg W.20 was a German submarine-launched reconnaissance flying boat of the World War I era.

Due to the need to be stored and launched from a submarine aircraft carrier, the W.20 was a small single-seat biplane flying boat that was designed to be assembled and dismantled quickly.

It had a slender hull on which was mounted a biplane wing and a conventional braced tailplane.

It was powered by a seven-cylinder, 80 PS Oberursel U.0 rotary engine which was basically a German-made near-clone of the Gnome Lambda pre-war French rotary, mounted on struts between the wings driving a pusher propeller.

The pilot had an open cockpit just forward of the lower wing.

Because of the slender hull stabilizing floats were fitted below and at the end of the lower wings.

The submarine intended to carry the W.20 was not built and only three W.20s were built.

Specifications

(3rd aircraft)

Crew

One

Length

5.93 m (19 ft 5.5 in)

Wingspan

6.80 m (22 ft 3.75 in)

Wing area

15.82 m2 (170.29 sq ft)

Empty weight

396 kg (873 lb)

Gross weight

568 kg (1,252 lb)

Powerplant

1 × Oberursel U.0,

7-cylinder rotary piston engine,

60 kW (80 hp)

Performance

Maximum speed

117 km/h (73 mph, 63 kn)

Endurance

1 hours 15 minutes

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