what is it?
The VEF I-12 was a tandem, two-seat Latvian trainer aircraft designed by Kārlis Irbītis and produced by VEF in Riga.
How to recognise it: 1 piston engine with propeller · 9.3 m wingspan
base stats
Bars compare against all aircraft: 3,500 km/h, 20,000 km, 850 seats; size and number built on a log scale up to 640 t (An-225) and 45,000 built (Cessna 172).
fun facts
- First flew 89 years ago, in 1937.
- Top speed is 1.8× a car on the Dutch motorway (130 km/h).
- Wingspan of 9.3 m: about 2 cars parked nose to tail.
piston: A car-like piston engine turning a propeller: simple and cheap, the classic small plane.
spec sheet
- first flight
- 1937-06-26
- introduced
- 1938
- retired
- 1940
- status
- retired
- number built
- 12
- role
- single engine, two seat cabin sports and trainer aircraft
- origin
- Latvia
- makers
- VEF
- engines
- 1× Blackburn Cirrus Minor
- crew
- 1
- passengers
- 1
- length
- 7.1 m
- wingspan
- 9.3 m
- height
- 1.9 m
- max take-off weight
- 680 kg
- top speed
- 230 km/h
- cruise speed
- 198 km/h
- range
- —
Specs are for the version in the Wikipedia article's specification section. Blank means the sources don't say.
Sources: Wikidata Q1515002, Wikipedia: VEF I-12 (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-24.