Hello Paul & all!
Kasyanenko No.1 (1910) – a biplane with 15-hp Anzani engine. Was made mostly from bamboo, with some wooden parts and fabric covering. Had forward elevator, rear horizontal stabilizer and vertical rudder. Lateral control was realized by wing warping. The aircraft was built in the city of Cherkasy and tested in summer 1910, but performed short flights only.
Technical data:
Wingspan – 7.0 m (upper wing), 4.8 m (lower wing)
Length – 9.0 m
Wing area – 17.0 m2
Kasyanenko No.1bis (1911) – modified version of the previous, with tail truss and empennage redesigned per sample of Farman IV, without forward elevator, and with ailerons on the upper wing. Engine was the same. During tests, the aircraft didn’t perform any advantages comparing to its precursor.
Kasyanenko No.2 – any info; probably never existed.
Kasyanenko No.3 (1912) was experimental aircraft with so-called “animated wings” (оживленные крылья); it was Kasyanenko’s original invention – alternative way of lateral control instead of wing warping or ailerons, by changing angle of wing setting during flight. The No.3 was 4-strut biplane (total 8 pairs of struts in the whole biplane cell); its fuselage had trihedral cross-section and was mostly uncovered; only frontal part containing pilot’s cockpit had fabric covering. The 50-hp Oerlicon liquid-cooled engine was placed behind the cockpit; it powered two propellers by chain drive. The center wing (1.5 m wingspan) was fixed, while the outer “semi-cells” could pivot around the frontal spars to small angle. This aircraft was built in St.Petersburg as Kasyanenko’s entry for 1912 military aircraft competition; but on October 28, 1912 it crashed and wasn’t rebuilt. Technical data unknown.
Kasyanenko No.4 (1913) – little monoplane with “animated wings” and 15-hp Anzani engine. It was Kasyanenko’s attempt to realize his dream about popular aircraft. Because it was designed with particular idea to use engine of minimum power, it’s usually considered as the first true ultralight (avietka) in Russia. It was built in summer 1913 near Kiev and tested in flight by Petr Nesterov, already renowned pilot. But the aircraft appeared to be underpowered and its flight performance were rather poor (service ceiling only 30 meters, maximum speed 60 km/h, long takeoff run).
Technical data:
Wingspan – 9.5 m
Length – 7.0 m
Wing area – 16.4 m2
Empty weight – 175 kg
Flight weight – 270 kg
Kasyanenko No.5 (1917) – experimental fighter; well-known.
Kasyanenko No.6 (1921) known as “cavalry plane” (Кавалерийский самолёт) – small aircraft with foldable wings, designed for reconnaissance service at cavalry units. Was under construction at Kiev Remvozdukh-6 factory but presumably never completed. Technical data and pictures unknown for me.
Source: Shavrov V.B. History of aircraft designs in USSR before 1938. – Moscow, 1986 (3rd edition). – P.81-83, 219-220, 364.
