CLASSIC TRAINER | VL VIIMA
One of the most scenic air_ elds in Finland is home to VL Viima II OH-VIG – considered to be among the country’s _ nest and rarest vintage types. Stefan Degraef explains why
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 Š 218 Smolik basic trainers in the early 1930s.
Led by chief engineer Arvo Ylinen, the resulting blueprint was a striking singleengined, two-seat, mixedconstruction biplane featuring staggered wings of different spans. It was fitted with a sevencylinder 150hp (110Kw) aircooled 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.
However, its performance was considered underwhelming. Heading back to the drawing board, VL soon produced the much improved Viima II. Flying initially on October 12, 1937 with test pilot Jorma Visapää at the controls, the Ilmavoimat placed an order for 20 examples a year later – the first of which was received in July 1939. The rest had arrived by December of that year.
“Led by chief engineer Arvo Ylinen, the resulting …
