KASYANENKO

Brothers Evgenii Ivanovich, Ivan and Andrei Kasyanenko were students at KPI (Kiev Polytechnic Institute) who in 1910-21 designed and built 6 increasingly original aeroplanes. No. 1 was pusher biplane of Farman style, which despite Anzani of only 15-hp made several short flights at Cherkassy. Modified as 1bis, front elevator removed and tail altered. No. 3 (next) built at St Petersburg with left/right biplane wings pivoted so that incidence of each side changed independently. Oerlikon 50-hp watercooled drove 2 tractor propellers via chains. Flight-tested October 1912. No. 4, tested by Nesterov summer 1913, deliberately low-powered monoplane, again with independent variable incidence on left/right wings; flown Kiev with 15-hp Anzani. No. 5, built at KPI and tested late June 1917, was unconventional biplane fighter, with variable-incidence left/right wings mounted on finely streamlined fuselage with nose gun and cockpit and 100-hp Gnome driving pusher 3-blade propeller (first in world ?) behind protective cruciform tail.

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