Ö1 FVM/CFM Tummeliten Photographed at the Flygvapnet's (Swedish Air Force) celebration of 100 years of Swedish aviation, held at Linköping on 13 June 2010.
This is probably the most well known and successful aircraft designed and built by FVM (Flygkompaniets Tygverkstäder), the workshop of the Army Aviation Company at Malmen). At least, all of the 29 aircraft built between 1920 and 1933 never had a fatal accident.
F 3 Malmen, or Malmslätt as it also used to be named, is still a military airfield, where this photograph was taken, and is nowadays also the location of the Swedish Air Force Museum (Flygvapenmuseum). FVM was renamed CFM (Centrala Flygverkstaden i Malmslätt) in 1926 when the Air Force was established and in 1936 became CVM (Centrala Verkstaden i Malmslätt).
This single-seat aircraft was designed by Henry Kjellson, and given the name ”Tummeliten” (Little Tom Thumb), but the pilots preferred to call it ”Tummelisa”, the name of Tom’s female counterpart.
11 of the 16 earliest built Tummelisas were transferred from the Army to the Air Force in 1926. Two were written off in 1926 when they still were based at Malmen, but the remainder went to the Air Force Flight Academy at Ljungbyhed (F 5). As advanced trainers, they were given the designation Ö 1.
In 1928, 10 new Tummelisas were manufactured and in 1933 further three. The last three were mainly constructed from spare parts.
The Tummelisa had a light wooden construction with wings and tail planes coated by linen fabric. The fuselage (and also the ailerons) were covered in plywood with engine cowling of aluminum plating.
The Tummelisas were fitted with 9-cylinder rotary Thulin A engines of 90 hp.
The last aircraft was written off in 1935, luckily undamaged, and can now be seen at Flygvapenmuseum.
Mikael Carlson built this replica, which first flew in 1989 and is now SE-XIL in the civil register. It is powered by an original engine. The aircraft is marked as the Ace of Spades, one of four aircraft - the Four Aces - of a former display team.
Length: 5.47 m. Span: 7.80 m. MTOW: 535 kg. Max. speed: 148 km/h.
Picture added on 19 June 2010 at 10:35
