Histoire résumée | Premier vol le 9 mai 1940
In 1939 the president of the Aeroclub of the Thechnical University, László Tasnádi, formulated the requirement for a two-seater glider which would be suitable to train students, having already earned their B badges, in aerotow. The Hungarian Aeronautical Society ordered a tandem two seater, strutted high wing, basic training glider with aerotow launching capability from Aero Ever Kft. The specifications was drawn up by Lajos Rotter.
The prototype of the R-11 glider first flew in May 1940. Originally it was called Gólya (Stork). The evaluation of the test flights and the requirements of newly published airworthiness regulations resulted in a couple of modifications. The new versions got the type designations of R-11a, R-11b and R-11b1 respectively, however the modifications applied on the different variations are not exactly known. The version, which was built in series from 1941, had got the designation of R-11b and the name of Cimbora (Buddy). Some 50 were built by Aero Ever in Esztergom, and 12 by the Aircraft Factory of Transylvania in Nagyvárad (Oradea).
The type were used for aerotow training as well as for familiarization flights on ridge-flying up to 1950. At Jun 6, 1942 Sándor Retkes and János Stolte had accomplished a duration flight of 20 h 44 m with Cimbora, which was topped, also with a Cimbora, by Géza Vass and Endre Lacza in August 1948 by a duration of 25 h 07 m. |