Lesher Teal

Design and development

The Teal was designed to beat the Federation Aeronautique Internationale (FAI) class is C-l.a records for speed and distance.

Construction started in 1962. The aircraft was configured as an all-aluminum single-place aircraft with retractable landing gear, powered by a 100 hp Continental O-200 engine driving a 64-inch Hartzell ground-adjustable propeller. By 28 April 1965, the airframe was complete. On that day, Lesher made the aircraft's first flight at Willow Run Airport. That August, he flew Teal to the 1965 EAA Fly-In in Rockford, Illinois, where he won an award from the EAA for his achievements.

Operational history

After two years of testing the Teal, Lesher flew the aircraft, on 22 May 1967, to a new 500 Km closed-course Class C1a speed record of 181.55 mph. On 30 June 1967, he set a new 1,000 Km closed-course speed record of 169.20 mph and on 220 October 1967, he set a new 2,000 Km closed-course speed record of 141.84 mph.

On 6 May 1968, while flying Teal near Ann Arbor, he experienced a loss of power. Not being able to make it to a nearby airport, he made an emergency landing in a field. The airplane was badly damaged, but he was unhurt. After rebuilding Teal, on 9 September 1970, he set a new Class C1a closed-circuit distance record of 1554.29 miles. Later, on 29 September 1973 he set a new Class C1a 3 Km speed record of 173.101 mph and the next day he set a new 15-25 Km speed record of 169.134 mph. Finally, on 2 July 1975, he set a new Class C1a record for distance in a straight line by flying 1,835.459, flying from Florida to Arizona. He continued to fly Teal for many more years, but never made any more record attempts. For his record breaking flights, he won the FAI's Louis Bleriot Medal four times and was inducted in the Michigan Aviation Hall of Fame in 1988.

The Teal was donated to the EAA Airventure Museum in 2002.

Specifications (Lesher Teal)

Data from EAA Airventure Museum

General characteristics

Performance