M.Hardy. Gliders & Sailplanes of the world

SZD-45A Ogar

  The Ogar (or Greyhound) two-seater motor glider designed by Dipl-Ing Tadeusz Labuc is SZD's first aircraft in this category to go into production and is intended for training from ab initio to advanced stages, and for cross-country ДальшеMore>>> flying. It first flew in prototype form on 29 May 1973 with a 45hp Stamo engine mounted behind the cabin and driving a two-bladed pusher propeller; the T-tail unit is carried on a tubular duralumin boom that passes under the airscrew disc. Because the German Stamo engine was no longer in production a 68hp Sportavia-Limbach four-cylinder horizontally-opposed engine was later fitted to the prototype which was also later fitted with wing tip winglets, first flying with these on 10 September 1979. This modification was devised by MrW. Blazewicz of Warsaw Technical University. The production SZD-45A is powered by a 68hp Limbach SL 1700EC powerplant driving a two-blade Hoffman pusher propeller. In 1978 a version of the Ogar was proposed powered by a 60hp PZL-Franklin 2A-120C (later 2A-120CP) 'flat twin'engine, which is to become the standard engine for production aircraft. The Franklin-engined SZD-45-2 Ogar-F first flew on 13 March 1979. A total of 65 Ogars had been built by the beginning of 1980, and the type had been exported to both East and West Germany, Sweden, the UK and the USA. Production has now ended. Of mixed glassfibre and wooden construction, the Ogar's single-spar cantilever shoulder-mounted wooden wings have a moulded plywood stressed skin covered with glassfibre, and slotless ailerons of glassfibre sandwich construction; there are air brakes above and below each wing. The main nacelle of the pod and boom fuselage is a glassfibre/epoxy resin shell built on two wooden frames which carry the wings, engine mounting and fuel tank (up to 48.5lb of fuel can be carried) and also the tail boom. The two pilots sit side-by-side with dual controls as standard under a two-piece flush-fitting canopy, the rear portion of which opens upwards for exit and entry. The fin is integral with the tail boom and there is a fully-castoring tailwheel under the rudder plus a semi-retractable monowheel with shock absorbers and a disc brake; for flying school use outrigger legs and wheels are mounted under the wing tips.


Span: 57 ft 6 1/4 in
Length: 26 ft 1 in
Height: 5 ft 7 3/4 in
Wing area: 205.6 sq ft
Aspect ratio: 16.2
Empty weight: 1,042 lb
Max weight: 1,543 lb
Max level speed: 112 mph at sea level
Min sinking speed: 3.61 ft/sec at 50 mph
Best glide ratio: 22.6:1 at 59 mph
Take-off run: 656 ft
Range with max fuel: 341 miles