Finland's finest

摘要

The Finnish Air Force (Ilmavoimat) turned to the newly founded state aircraft company Valtion Lentokonetehdas (VL) to augment and eventually replace its Czechoslovakian-built Letov S 218 Smolik basic trainers in the early 1930s. Led by chief engineer Arvo Ylinen, the resulting blueprint was a striking single-engined, two-seat, mixed-construction biplane featuring staggered wings of different spans. It was fitted with a seven-cylinder 150hp (110Kw) air-cooled Siemens-Halske Sh 14 radial powerplant, was named the Viima (Gale in English) and took to the skies for the first time in December 1935.