Lehtovaara PIK-16 Vasama

The Lehtovaara PIK-16 Vasama (Arrow) is a Finnish mid-wing, single-seat, FAI Standard Class glider that was designed by Tuomo Tervo, Jorma Jalkanen and Kurt Hedstrom, who were students at the Polyteknikkojen Ilmailukerho (PIK) and produced by Lehtovaara.

Design and development
The PIK-16 is constructed from wood, with a fibreglass nose. The 15.0 m span wing employs a Wortmann FX-05-168 (14% modification) airfoil at the wing root, transitioning to a NACA 63 (2)-165 at the wing tip. The wing features dive brakes. The prototype Vasama had V tail, but it was changed to cruciform tail on production aircraft.

A total of 56 PIK-16s were built. The aircraft was not type certified but it did become the second most exported Finnish glider, surpassed only by the later PIK-20 series.

Operational history
The prototype PIK-16 set a Finnish national record for a 300 km triangle course of 86.6 km/h before it had even finished flight testing.

The design won the OSTIV prize at the World Gliding Championships held at Junín, Buenos Aires Province, Argentina in 1963, finishing third in the standard class.

Variants

 * PIK-16a
 * Prototype with a V-tail.


 * PIK-16b
 * Revised design with a cruciform tail, four built by the Finnish Aeronautical Association at the Jämi Flying School.


 * PIK-16c
 * Third version

Aircraft on display

 * Finnish Aviation Museum