LEA-13 Lifting Engine Aircraft
Some of our scientists were experimenting with Caelium augmentations to Gavrillium engines, and discovered something strange. They didn't quite manage to make a better engine, as their only prototype for the "better engine" concept was smashed into the ceiling. Like good Salviosi engineers, however, they tested the new phenomenon until realizing that a properly heat-treated sample of Caelium (called Gravite because it's cooler that way) can be placed in the middle of a set of Gavrillium rods rotating around a common center, and will then produce a force relative to the strength of gravity---regardless of its altitude (unlike Caelium). This force always goes in the same direction relative to the piece, so a piece of Gravite held upside down inside the rotating rods will provide a downwards force, and a lifting engine turned slightly to the side will provide a force that both lifts the engine and moves it sideways.
To capitalize on this we have constructed the Lifting Engine, comprised of a Gavrillium motor and its heater spinning the rods-and-Caelium assembly to generate lift, bundled up into a neat package conveniently labelled "UP, NO REALLY, THIS WAY IS UP. DO NOT INVERT IF YOU LIKE YOUR BONES INTACT".
The LEA-13 is a simple contraption, using one of these new Lifting Engines attached to part of the neighbor's lawn chair collection a simple basket from a civilian hot-air balloon. A Ceramah radio is installed in the basket (powered by an alternator on the Gavrillium engine, saving the weight normally used for its generator), and a set of cute binoculars plus a camera are handed to the soldiers who offended their superior officers willing volunteer pilots, who can then use the high altitudes attained by the balloons to survey enemy positions, dispositions, and radio down to their commanders or (every soldier's favorite) their accompanying artillery battery, to deliver extremely accurate fire support. Well, extremely accurate on the second shot, anyway...Regardless, the LEA can be used tethered to the ground, or, by the daring pilot, untethered. Untethered LEAs can reach great heights and see very, very far, but of course it gets cold and breezy, and nobody likes calling in the Salviosi Merchant Marine's Rescue Division just to pick up a wayward LEA-13 and pilot when they inevitably drift really far off course.