Daimler L20

The Daimler L20, later called the Klemm-Daimler L20, was one of the first light aircraft built in significant numbers. It was a two-seat, low-wing cantilever monoplane designed by Hans Klemm at Daimler in Sindelfingen as a development of his L15, with open tandem cockpits, a wooden fuselage covered in canvas and a structure said to carry a safety factor of 12. Its engine produced only 20 hp, first a Harley-Davidson motorcycle unit and then a Mercedes F7502 flat twin that Klemm persuaded Daimler to build. In February and March 1926 it crossed the Alps in winter, which Flight magazine called the vindication of the light plane, and in 1928 and 1929 Baron von Konig-Warthausen flew one about 36,000 km from Berlin to New York. Daimler declined series production, so Klemm left in 1927 to found his own company. The L20 A1 had a wire-braced wing; the L20 B1 used a plywood torsion box.