Lebed XI

Type XI
Role	Reconnaissance aircraft
National origin	Russia
Manufacturer	Lebed
Primary user	Imperial Russian Air Force
Number built	ca 10-12

Lebed XI was the designation applied to a number of reconnaissance aircraft supplied to the Imperial Russian Air Force by the Lebed factory of St Petersburg during World War I. Rather than representing any one particular type of aircraft, or even aircraft of Lebed's own design, the designation covered a variety of different German Albatros aircraft that had been brought down behind Russian lines and captured. Lebed repaired or rebuilt these machines and returned them to service on the Russian side.

Subtypes from A1 through A8 were assigned to identify different Albatros designs supplied. As replacements for the damaged water-cooled engines used on the German aircraft were hard to come by, Lebed eventually fitted Salmson radial engines to some airframes.

Operators

Russia

• Imperial Russian Air Force

References

• Russian Aviation Museum
• Уголок неба