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Gliding Heritage Centre
The Gliding Heritage Centre (GHC) is a collection of vintage gliders based at Lasham Airfield, Hampshire, UK. Origins Christopher Wills, the son of Philip Wills, founded the Vintage Glider Club in 1973. He died on 4 May 2011 but left a bequest of £100,000 to build a hangar to house vintage gliders plus his Steinadler. A group of enthusiasts decided to create a Gliding Heritage Centre which could be visited by members of the public in a building called The Chris Wills Memorial Hangar. It is a registered charity No 1148972. After raising more money and with much volunteer work, the first hangar was opened on the 4th August 2013 during the 41st International Vintage Glider Club rally that was held at Lasham that year. Further fund raising allowed the building of a second hangar to house the ever increasing collection of gliders. Hangar 2 was officially opened on 25 August 2018. A dedicated workshop is almost complete following a further bequest from Trish Williams. This will al ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Manuel Crested Wren
The Manuel Crested and Willow Wrens formed a series of wooden, single-seat gliders designed in the UK by W. L. Manuel in the early 1930s, intended for slope soaring. Some were built by the designer, others from plans he supplied. The Dunstable Kestrel was a further development. Design and development The Crested Wren was the first of the series, its design influenced by contemporary German practice. It was built by Manuel. Its two-piece wings had single spars which, together with plywood wing coverings forward of them, formed D-shaped box girders. The wooden ribs were produced in batches with a method devised by Manuel. Behind the spar the wings were fabric covered. The wings, which were slightly swept about the spars, had a constant- chord centre section, tapering outboard with ailerons and rounded tips. There were no flaps or airbrakes. The wings were mounted on a fuselage pylon and had lift struts from the lower fuselage. Two flying wires from the nose ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Schleicher Ka 3
The Schleicher Ka 3 or Kaiser Ka 3, is a 1950s single seat training glider, mostly sold in kit form. Design and development The Ka 3 and its predecessor the Ka 1 were mostly sold as kits for home assembly. Apart from their fuselages the two types are very close in appearance, simplicity, weight and performance. They share a round tipped high wing with constant chord and no sweep, mounted with 2.5° of dihedral and braced with a single lift strut on each side from the lower fuselage to the wing at about one third span. Plain, constant-chord ailerons reach almost from the tips to about mid span and upper wing spoilers are placed at mid chord, inboard of the ailerons. Both have 37° butterfly tails with straight leading edges and round tips and trailing edges. The Ka 1 has a ply-covered, rounded wooden-framed fuselage but that of the Ka 3 is more angular, steel tube-framed, fabric covered and slightly longer. Both have a simple, deep, sprung landing skid reaching from t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Schleicher Ka 6
The Schleicher Ka 6 is a single-seat glider designed by Rudolf Kaiser, built by Alexander Schleicher GmbH & Co, Germany and is constructed of spruce and plywood with fabric covering. The design initially featured a conventional tailplane and elevator which was later replaced by an all-moving tailplane in the -Pe and Ka 6E variants. Variants built before the -CR and -BR used a main skid as the principal undercarriage, with later variants including the Ka 6E using a wheel as the main undercarriage with no nose skid. Other modifications for the Ka 6E include a more aerodynamic fuselage with glassfibre nose and wingroot fairings, longer canopy, and modified aluminium airbrakes. Variants Dates of initial airworthiness approval in brackets: * Ka 6 – Initial version; span , (30 October 1956). * Ka 6B (27 September 1957) * Ka 6B-Pe – The Ka 6B with all-flying tailplane, (20 May 1960). * Ka 6BR – The Ka 6B with the main skid removed and a relocated mainwheel, (27 September 1957 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Scheibe Bergfalke
The Scheibe ''Bergfalke'' (German: "mountain hawk") is a German glider designed by Egon Scheibe as a post-World War II development of the Akaflieg München Mü13 produced before and during the war. Design and development The prototype flew on 5 August 1951 as the Akaflieg München Mü13E Bergfalke I and by the end of the year, Scheibe had established his own works at the Munich-Riem Airport to produce the type as the Bergfalke II. It was a mid-wing sailplane of conventional design with a non-retractable monowheel undercarriage and a tailskid. The fuselage was a welded steel structure covered in fabric and enclosed two seats in tandem. The wings had a single wooden spar and were covered in plywood. Subsequent versions introduced forward sweep to the wings, a more aerodynamic canopy, airbrakes, and a tailwheel in place of the tailskid. By 1982, Scheibe had built over 300 of these aircraft, and Stark Ibérica built a number of the Bergfalke III version under license in Spain. S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Scheibe Zugvogel
The Scheibe Zugvogel ( en, Migratory bird) is a West German, high-wing, single-seat, FAI Open Class glider that was produced by Scheibe Flugzeugbau. The first version was designed by Rudolph Kaiser and subsequent versions by Egon Scheibe.Simons, Martin, ''Sailplanes 1945-1965'', (Ed: Eqip) p.162 Design and development The Zugvogel was designed with the goal of a simple and inexpensive, but high performance, open class competition glider, with quick assembly. It was developed through several variants before production ended after 100 had been completed. The aircraft is of mixed construction, with a welded steel tube fuselage covered in doped aircraft fabric covering, wooden framed tail surfaces covered in fabric and wooden wings. The span wing uses a NACA 63-616 airfoil at the wing root, changing to a NACA 63-614 section at the wing tip. The wing uses dive brakes for glidepath control. The nose is covered with fibreglass. The landing gear is a fixed monowheel. The Zugvogel I ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Scheibe Flugzeugbau
Scheibe Flugzeugbau was a manufacturer of sailplanes and motorgliders in Germany in the second half of the 20th century. Founded by Egon Scheibe at the Munich-Riem Airport to produce his Bergfalke design in 1951,Gunston 1993, p.270 the company had produced over 2,000 aircraft by 1985.Taylor, J.W.R. (1985), p.740 After Egon Scheibe died in 1997, his sons-in-law took over the firm.Scheibe (ND) By 2006, they were ready to relinquish control themselves due to their advanced age, but without a successor, the firm ceased operations. Hartmut Sammet subsequently founded Scheibe Aircraft GmbH in Heubach, taking over maintenance of existing Scheibe aircraft, and the manufacturing rights to the Scheibe SF 25. Products * Scheibe Bergfalke * Scheibe Spatz * Scheibe Specht * Scheibe Sperber * Scheibe Zugvogel * Scheibe SF-23 Sperling * Scheibe SF-24 Motorspatz * Scheibe SF-25 Falke * Scheibe SF 26 Super Spatz * Scheibe SF-27 Zugvogel V * Scheibe SF-28 Tandem Falke * Scheibe SF-29 * Sc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Akaflieg München Mü13
The Akaflieg München Mü13 Merlin and Akaflieg München Mü13 Atalante were gliders designed and built in Germany from 1935. A motor-glider version of the Merlin was converted by the addition of a small engine in the nose, as the Mü13M Motormerlin. Post-war development as the Mü13E entered production as the Scheibe Bergfalke. Development Germany had established Akademische Fliegerschule at several universities after World War I. The first and lead group was established in Berlin, but one of the most prolific, up to World War II, was Akaflieg München. The Akaflieg München Mü13 was a single-seat development of the two-seat Akaflieg München Mü10 Milan, designed and built by Tony Troeger and Kurt Schmidt, under the direction of Egon Scheibe, in two versions, a motorglider and a pure sailplane. Two prototypes were built: Tony Troeger's motor glider was named 'Merlin' and Kurt Schmidt's sailplane was named 'Atalante'. One is on display at Gliding Heritage Centre. The M ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Colditz Cock
The Colditz Cock was a glider built by British prisoners of war during World War II for an escape attempt from Oflag IV-C (Colditz Castle) prison camp in Germany. Background After the execution of 50 prisoners who had taken part in the " Great Escape" from Stalag Luft III, the Allied High Command had discouraged escape attempts, though the plan to build a glider was encouraged in order to divert the energies of the prisoners from descending into boredom and tedium. The idea for the glider came from Lieutenant Tony Rolt. Rolt, who was not even an airman, had noticed the chapel roof line was completely obscured from the German guards' view. He realised that the roof would make a perfect launching point from which the glider could fly across the River Mulde, which was about 60 metres below. Construction The team was headed by Bill Goldfinch and Jack Best. Goldfinch and Best were aided by their discovery in the prison library of ''Aircraft Design'', a two-volume work by C.H. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Manuel Hawk
The Manuel Hawk was a homebuilt single-seat glider designed and constructed in the UK around 1970. Only one example was flown. Design and development W. L. "Bill" Manuel, who had designed and built a glider as early as 1929 and was later responsible for the Willow Wren, designed the Hawk during his retirement. It was a single-seat aircraft intended for soaring in weak thermals. He built the Hawk himself during 1968 and 1969 before taking it to the College of Aeronautics at Cranfield for structural analysis. The Hawk was an all-wood, cantilever shoulder wing monoplane. The centre section of the three-piece wing was of constant chord and fitted with parallel-ruler type, upper surface airbrakes positioned at 28.26% of the half-span and at 42% chord. The outer panels were tapered with rounded tips and carried the ailerons. The wing had an angle of incidence of 3° and the outer panels had 3° of dihedral. Structurally, the wings had a spruce main spar at 33% chord with ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Manuel Wren
The Manuel Crested and Willow Wrens formed a series of wooden, single-seat gliders designed in the UK by W. L. Manuel in the early 1930s, intended for slope soaring. Some were built by the designer, others from plans he supplied. The Dunstable Kestrel was a further development. Design and development The Crested Wren was the first of the series, its design influenced by contemporary German practice. It was built by Manuel. Its two-piece wings had single spars which, together with plywood wing coverings forward of them, formed D-shaped box girders. The wooden ribs were produced in batches with a method devised by Manuel. Behind the spar the wings were fabric covered. The wings, which were slightly swept about the spars, had a constant- chord centre section, tapering outboard with ailerons and rounded tips. There were no flaps or airbrakes. The wings were mounted on a fuselage pylon and had lift struts from the lower fuselage. Two flying wires from the nose ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Laister-Kauffman TG-4
The Laister-Kauffmann TG-4 (designated LK-10 Yankee Doodle 2 by its designer) was a sailplane produced in the United States during the Second World War for training cargo glider pilots. It was a conventional sailplane design with a fuselage of steel tube construction and wooden wings and tail, covered all over with fabric. The pilot and instructor sat in tandem under a long canopy. Design and development Jack Laister designed the aircraft in response to the formation of the United States Army Air Corps' American Glider Program in 1941, basing it on his Yankee Doodle design of 1938 for Lawrence Tech. Aside from the addition of a second seat, the Yankee Doodle 2 differed from its predecessor by having wings of constant dihedral instead of gull wings. The USAAC expressed interest, but only if Laister could arrange for the manufacture of the type. When Laister found a sponsor in businessman John Kauffmann, they established the Laister-Kauffmann Corporation in St Louis, Missouri a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
