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The Great Lakes Sport Trainer has a rich heritage and history. This wonderful biplane was designed by Great Lakes Aircraft Corporation of Cleveland, Ohio in the late 1920's.
factory
1929 magazine ad
The first model designed was the "2T-1."  It had a American Cirrus Mark III 4-in-line air cooled engine. This plane had a straight upper wing.
2T-1
However with in a very short time the top wing  was swept back because of spin recovery problems.  This new model with the swept top wing was named the "2T-1A." It was powered by the 85 H.P. upright American Cirrus "Ace" engine.  
2T-1A
Soon other improvements were made. A larger tail fin was one. You see this on most of the Great Lakes Sport Trainers today. Also a different engine, the which boasted 90 H.P.  It was designated the model "2T-1E."
2T-1E
Harvey Swack shares this about the history
of the Great Lakes Sport Trainer:
"Every effort was made to minimize weight as the selected engine produced 90 h.p. Also every part of the requirements was that this was to be an airplane designed to a G load factor of positive 9 and a negative 6. That meant every trick in the book was used to bring this about including the following: "

Wing spars routed to save 16 lbs.

All nuts and bolts were made to the exact size needed.  This saved 16 lbs.

Outside the wing spars very little wood was used. The wing ribs were made of 17 ST .016 aluminum.  Everything was designed to weigh the least yet still meet the +9 and -6 G strength requirement! The size of the airplane was made to carry people who were 5'3" to 5'5" tall and weighed 135 to 145 pounds, as that was the average weight of men in 1929!

They made all their own nuts and bolts at first. Then the Army and Navy required all government contractors to use AN nuts and bolts.

The question is asked, why they selected the American Cirrus engine? The answer is they were producing an airplane to replace the Curtis Jenny which had been grounded and had been used as a trainer using the 90 hp OX-5 engine. There certainly was a market for this kind of airplane at the time, and once introduced proved to be a real winner. A supercharged Cirrus engine was tested but never produced for the market

In examining the six years of company records, I found no hint that they ever tried to use more than 90 hp because the airplane was designed to CAA part 7. This corresponds to Part 23 today and the most interesting thing is that several of these airplanes built in 1929 were analysed and found that they were strong enough to meet Part 23 when 180 hp was installed!"
Thanks to Harvey Swack and EAA for the pictures on this page.
Great Lakes Sets Record
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