Race planes of the thirties - The Klemm Kl 25
By Willie Bodenstein
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Developed during the late 1920s the Klemm was the brainchild of Hans Klemm of Germany and more than 600 L25's were built in thirty different versions and manufacturing licenses were sold to both the UK and USA.
Klemm's first design was the L 15 completed in 1918 and initially powered by an Indian motorcycle engine of 5.5kW and flew in 1919 powered by an 8.8 kW Harley Davidson engine. The L25 with its 13m wingspan had a maximum take-off weight of 720 kg and maximum speed of 160 km/h, could reach 4600 m and had a range of 650 km.
In 1928 Friedrich-Karl von Koening-Warthausen flew a Klemm L20 from Berlin to Moscow. Not content with his achievement he then set about and successfully circumnavigated the globe. In 1930 Mohamed Sidki, an Egyptian flew his Klemm L25a from Berlin to Cairo and wrote the following to Hans Klemm: "your beautiful little machine has carried me through wind, snow and torrential rain without any damage to myself, the plane and the engine. A year later, Elly Beinhorn flew her KI26 from Europe to Australia and in the process won the Hindenburg Cup.
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