The Ongoing Mystery Aircraft Thread Part Deux.
- Thread starter Ferry_vO
- Start date
pomme homme
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That tail fin and rudder looks very Caudronesque.
pomme homme
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The only other machine that immediately comes to mind, with a similar tail fin and rudder, is the pre-war version of the Leopoldoff L.3 - however the wing struts don't seem to be right for that. But then, I'm probably barking up the wrong tree, countrywise. I wish that I could read the faint script on the vertical tail surfaces!
lefty
SOH-CM-2023
If you look closely enough on the rudder, Mike, you will see a faint 'L-3'. I only removed the reg, F-ANRX, which is the prototype Léopoldoff Colibri. Well worked out - over to France 
Would you be kind enough to explain why most references, including AviaFrance, spell it Leopoldoff- my photo is from a French publication, L'Aviation Civile Française, which insists on the acute. Is it optional ?
Would you be kind enough to explain why most references, including AviaFrance, spell it Leopoldoff- my photo is from a French publication, L'Aviation Civile Française, which insists on the acute. Is it optional ?
lefty
SOH-CM-2023
If you look closely enough on the rudder, Mike, you will see a faint 'L-3'. I only removed the reg, F-ANRX, which is the prototype Léopoldoff Colibri. Well worked out - over to France
Would you be kind enough to explain why most references, including AviaFrance, spell it Leopoldoff ? - my photo is from a French publication, L'Aviation Civile Française, which insists on the acute. Is it optional ?
Would you be kind enough to explain why most references, including AviaFrance, spell it Leopoldoff ? - my photo is from a French publication, L'Aviation Civile Française, which insists on the acute. Is it optional ?
pomme homme
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Apologies for the above unattributed quote. The 'reply with quote' facility no longer seems to be operative.
I think that the answer to your question, Mike, is that Mr Leopoldoff shouldn't have an acute accent on the first 'e' of his surname because he wasn't French by birth. His forename/initials are variously given as Lev, E.T.S. and M.L.. He is said to have been born at Saratov, in Imperial Russia, in 1898; to have trained in Moscow as an aeronautical engineer; to have fought with the White Russians; to have fled to Turkey, from Odessa, when the Bolsheviks triumphed in the civil war; to have worked his way, from there, along the Mediterranean coast to Tunisia; to have travelled from North Africa, in 1923, to France, where he had family connections; and subsequently to have settled in the country (as did many White Russians, French being the lingua franca of the Russian Imperial Court). Most sources spell his surname with 'ff' at the end although I have seen it suggested, albeit rarely, that originally it ended with a 'v'. Thus it may be that in order to render his surname 'more French' he added the acute accent to the first 'e' and, possibly, substituted 'ff' for the final 'v'. If so and if he did so informally, rather than by formal means, probably it is more correct to spell his surname Leopoldoff. That is the spelling most used in my French language books and on French language websites.
Now here's something that wasn't the handiwork of Lev Leopoldoff - although this rather attractive tandem monoplane would have been flying at the same time as his pre-war Colibris.
pomme homme
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Spot on, Mike - but as to the Colibris, not only were they produced up to but also after the war. Scots Wha Hae!
- but as to the Colibris, not only were they produced up to but also after the war. Scots Wha Hae!
fabulousfour
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That, Mike, is the SAI KZ II Kupe in the Danish Flymuseum
fabulousfour
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pomme homme
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That looks to be a Cirrus engined B.A. Swallow.
fabulousfour
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That's her, Mike. 
A Swallow which found its way to Australia.
Santé
A Swallow which found its way to Australia.
Santé
pomme homme
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Thank you, Robert. Here's an ultralight before its time - which didn't serve its owner well.
