Reports of the first
German glider contest, held at the
Wasserkuppe in the late summer of 1920, generated considerable interest in Poland, leading to the First Polish Glider Contest at
Czarna Góra between 30 August and 13 September 1923. The contest was not a great success, limited by novice designers and pilots and a poor site, but the SL.1 Akar was by far the most successful design. The Ikub I, essentially an unpowered but otherwise conventional
parasol wing monoplane, gained the second prize. The Ikub I was an all-wood aircraft. Its one-piece, twin
spar wing had a rectangular centre-section and tapered outwards and was covered overall with
fabric. It was supported over the fuselage on four near-vertical steel-tube
struts and braced with
lift wires from the lower fuselage
longerons to the spars and with
landing wires from a
cabane over the fuselage. Its fuselage was a simple, rectangular section, ply-covered structure with a single-seat, open
cockpit under the wing
leading edge. The
empennage was fabric-covered and wire-braced, with a curved
fin carrying a broad, curved
rudder. The
tailplane was mounted on top of the fuselage, with generous, split
elevators. The Ikub had a fixed
conventional undercarriage, with its wheels on a single axle mounted on short, steel tube V-struts. A central skid guarded against nose-overs. ==Operational history==