Large Letov Airliner Concepts - 1924

[Apophenia]

From Flight, 19 June 1924 http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1924/1924%20-%200399.html

Three wild and wonderful monoplane airliner designs from Alois Smolík at Letov.

The first has four unspecified Hispano-Suiza engines (Skoda-built 8Fb, perhaps?) in a tandem push-pull arrangement. Otherwise the layout is fairly conventional.

The second is a high-winged trimotor - nose-mounted tractor and wing nacelle pushers. Both fuselage nose and nacelles are very deep (the latter acting as spats for the main undercarriage).

The third is for Tophe ;D This aircraft has seven tractor propellers. Four engines are buried in the thick wings. The other three are stacked vertically in the extremely deep nose.

The fuselage is a vertically-arranged twin-boom and pod design. Passengers rode above and below the mid-placed wing.

The photo of the model is hard to read. There may be a third row of passenger windows directly below the wing. If so, the three passenger cabins are stacked vertically just like the fuselage-mounted engines

 

[Jemiba]

There seems to have been a strong french influence, these designs remind me to
some Bleriot or Farman designs of the same era, weird and ugly, nevertheless
very interesting ! ;D

 

[Apophenia]

Yes, definitely something Farman Jabiru-ish about those noses I don't recall anything quite like that seven-engined number 3 concept, though.

 

[borovik]

??? :-\ ???
Some changes in the designation, according to V. Nemechek "Czechoslovak aircraft 1918-1945" Volume 1.,
where should that photo number 2, trimotor bomber S-9 / 1923 / (although the Czech transcription correct to say Sh-9),
In the picture number 3, project transatlantic airliner S-137 / 1920 /

 

[Apophenia]

Some changes in the designation, according to V. Nemechek "Czechoslovak aircraft 1918-1945" Volume 1.,
where should that photo number 2, trimotor bomber S-9 / 1923 / (although the Czech transcription correct to say Sh-9),
In the picture number 3, project transatlantic airliner S-137 / 1920 /

Thanks Borovik. I went with 'S' because I wasn't sure if the forum would support the hachek.

The designations are confusing! The simplest explanation is that the Flight correspondent hear one designation (S-15) and assuming that this applied to all three models.

Your drawing are much clearer than the Flight photos. The S-9 may well have been a bomber but the images show airliner-like rows of windows. Perhaps there was more than one derivative planned?

The S-137 designation is even more confusing. Whatever happened to the S-37? ??? I'm going to assume that the S-137 is derived from a currently unknown S-37.

 

[Stargazer]

The Smolik S.137 from Les Ailes, 9 September 1926:

 

[hesham]

Hi,

here is a recently Model to S-137.

Letectvi a Kosmonautika 1998-22

 

[Avimimus]

Any idea what the designers were attempting to achieve with the S-137?