The VL Tuisku was a Finnish

Finland

Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...

 trainer aircraft designed in the 1930s. It was a two-seat, single-engined biplane with a welded steel framework, covered with fabric. 30 were produced for the Finnish Air Force

Finnish Air Force

The Finnish Air Force is one of the branches of the Finnish Defence Forces. Its peacetime tasks are airspace surveillance, identification flights, and production of readiness formations for wartime conditions...

 and served from 1935 to 1949.

Design and development

Arvo Ylinen, who was the chief designer at the State Aircraft Factory (Valtion lentokonetehdas

Valtion lentokonetehdas

' was a Finnish aircraft manufacturing company that was founded on 23 February 1928 from the IVL or I.V.L. factory . The company was transferred from being subordinate to the Finnish Air Force to being subordinate to the Ministry of Defence...

, abbreviated VL) led a project to create a new trainer aircraft for the Finnish Air Force. A prototype was built in 1933 and its was first flown on January 10, 1934 by lieutenant U.E. Mäkelä. Series production began one year later in 1935 - 30 aircraft were built over a period of two years. The name Tuisku means Snowstorm in English.

Operational history

Three different versions of the aircraft were made: a maritime, a pilot training and a reconnaissance training version. The aircraft was in use with all Finnish Air Force squadrons until 1949, bearing the identification codes TU-149 – TU-179.

Aircraft on display

One Tuisku, named "Sokeri-Sirkku" (TU-178) is preserved and on display at the air museum in Vantaa

Vantaa

Vantaa is a city and municipality in Finland. Helsinki, Vantaa, Espoo and Kauniainen make up the Helsinki Metropolitan Area.Vantaa, with its population of , is the fourth most populated city of Finland. The biggest airport in Finland, the Helsinki-Vantaa Airport, is located there...

. The fuselage of TU-169 is preserved in the museum's storage facilities. A Tuisku is also on display in front of the old State Aircraft Factory in Tampere

Tampere

Tampere is a city in southern Finland. It is the most populous inland city in any of the Nordic countries. The city has a population of , growing to approximately 300,000 people in the conurbation and over 340,000 in the metropolitan area. Tampere is the third most-populous municipality in...

.

Variants

• Tuisku : Prototype.
• Tuisku I : Initial production version.
• Tuisku II : Improved version, fitted with a 215-hp (160-kW) Armstrong Siddeley Lynx radial piston engine
  Radial engine
  The radial engine is a reciprocating type internal combustion engine configuration in which the cylinders point outward from a central crankshaft like the spokes on a wheel...
  
  .

Specifications (Landplane)