The Antonov A-13 was a Soviet aerobatic sailplane

Glider (sailplane)

A glider or sailplane is a type of glider aircraft used in the sport of gliding. Some gliders, known as motor gliders are used for gliding and soaring as well, but have engines which can, in some cases, be used for take-off or for extending a flight...

 flown in the 1950s and 60s. It was a small, single-seat, all-metal

Aluminium

Aluminium or aluminum is a silvery white member of the boron group of chemical elements. It has the symbol Al, and its atomic number is 13. It is not soluble in water under normal circumstances....

 aircraft developed from the A-11 and which could optionally be fitted with that aircraft's longer-span wings. It was a mid-wing monoplane

Monoplane

A monoplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with one main set of wing surfaces, in contrast to a biplane or triplane. Since the late 1930s it has been the most common form for a fixed wing aircraft.-Types of monoplane:...

 with a tadpole-like fuselage

Fuselage

The fuselage is an aircraft's main body section that holds crew and passengers or cargo. In single-engine aircraft it will usually contain an engine, although in some amphibious aircraft the single engine is mounted on a pylon attached to the fuselage which in turn is used as a floating hull...

 and a V-tail

V-tail

In aircraft, a V-tail is an unconventional arrangement of the tail control surfaces that replaces the traditional fin and horizontal surfaces with two surfaces set in a V-shaped configuration when viewed from the front or rear of the aircraft...

. In February 1962, an A-13 was fitted with a small turbojet engine to set a world airspeed record of 196 km/h (122 mph) for an aircraft up to 500 kg. This jet-powered version is known as the An-13

Variants

• A-13 : Single-seat aerobatic sailplane.
• A-13M : Motor glider
  Motor glider
  A motor glider is a fixed-wing aircraft that can be flown with or without engine power. The FAI Gliding Commission Sporting Code definition is: A fixed wing aerodyne equipped with a means of propulsion ,...
  
   version, fitted with a low-powered piston engine.
• An-13 : Jet-powered version.

Specifications (A-13)