Antonov A-9

The Antonov A-9 was a single-seat sailplane designed and built in the Soviet Union in the 1940s by the glider designer Oleg Antonov. It developed the Red Front 7, the sailplane that Olga Klepikova flew to a world distance record of 749 kilometres, a mark that stood from 1939 to 1951. The A-9 was a cantilever shoulder-wing monoplane with a short constant-chord centre section and long tapered outer panels that could be detached for transport. Its ply-covered fuselage gave it a pod-and-boom look, it carried Schempp-Hirth type airbrakes, and it launched from a drop-off dolly and landed on its strengthened underside rather than on wheels. The structure was heavy, so wing loading was high, which suited speed and gliding angle between thermals. Because of that speed, A-9s were used chiefly for competition flying and record setting.