The Laister-Kauffmann TG-4 (designated LK-10 Yankee Doodle 2 by its designer) is a sailplane produced in the United States during the Second World War for training cargo glider pilots. It was a conventional sailplane design with a fuselage of steel tube construction and wooden wings and tail, covered all over with fabric. The pilot and instructor sat in tandem under a long canopy.
Design and development
LK-10A/TG-4A N53619 based in Tehachapi, California, USA
Jack Laister designed the aircraft in response to the formation of the United States Army Air Corps' American Glider Program in 1941, basing it on his Yankee Doodle design of 1938 for Lawrence Tech. Aside from the addition of a second seat, the Yankee Doodle 2 differed from its predecessor by having wings of constant dihedral instead of gull wings. The USAAC expressed interest, but only if Laister could arrange for the manufacture of the type. When Laister found a sponsor in businessman John Kauffmann, they established the Laister-Kauffmann Corporation in St Louis, Missouri and the USAAC ordered three prototypes as the XTG-4.
When evaluation of the type proved positive, the Army placed an order for 75 aircraft, followed by an order for another 75. These were operated as the TG-4A. All had been withdrawn from service prior to the end of the war when it was discovered that the flight characteristics of the aircraft were so different to those of a cargo glider, that the experience gained on the TG-4 was not particularly relevant. After the war many were sold as surplus and helped build civilian gliding in the USA.
Variants
XTG-4 – prototypes (three built)
TG-4A – production model (150 built)
TG-4B – civilian aircraft impressed into service (one impressed)
Operators
LK-10 Serial #48 registered as N53619 owned and flown by Doug Fronius of Poway, California, USA as of 2023. Based at Mountain Valley Airport in Tehachapi, California.
LK-10 Serial #106 under prefix PT-PAZ operated by Aeroclube de Bauru in Brazil as of April 2013[1]
Laister-Kauffman TG-4 PT-PAZ in Bauru, Brazil
This glider crashed on March 10, 2020.
LK-10 Serial # unk operating at Rockton, Ontario (CF-AZJ) as of Apr, 2022
LK-10 Serial #23 formerly registered as N53609 currently under restoration to flying condition in Dayton, Ohio, USA as of 2024. Once restored the aircraft will be based at the Caesar Creek Soaring Club in Waynesville, Ohio.
^Shenstone, B.S.; K.G. Wilkinson (1963). The World's Sailplanes:Die Segelflugzeuge der Welt:Les Planeurs du Monde Volume II (in English, French, and German) (1st ed.). Zurich: Organisation Scientifique et Technique Internationale du Vol a Voile (OSTIV) and Schweizer Aero-Revue. pp. 232–233.
References
Shenstone, B.S.; K.G. Wilkinson (1963). The World's Sailplanes:Die Segelflugzeuge der Welt:Les Planeurs du Monde Volume II (in English, French, and German) (1st ed.). Zurich: Organisation Scientifique et Technique Internationale du Vol a Voile (OSTIV) and Schweizer Aero-Revue. pp. 160–162.
