The unusual German Budig glider participated in the second (1921) Rhön competition, though without distinction. It was later fitted with a low power engine, making it probably the first powered glider. Budig in powered flight

Design and development

The Budig glider was a single seat

biplane A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two main wings stacked one above the other. The first powered, controlled aeroplane to fly, the Wright Flyer, used a biplane wing arrangement, as did many aircraft in the early years of aviation. While ...

sesquiplane A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two main wings stacked one above the other. The first powered, controlled aeroplane to fly, the Wright Flyer, used a biplane wing arrangement, as did many aircraft in the early years of aviation. While a ...

of unequal

span Span may refer to: Science, technology and engineering * Span (unit), the width of a human hand * Span (engineering), a section between two intermediate supports * Wingspan, the distance between the wingtips of a bird or aircraft * Sorbitan es ...

and

chord Chord may refer to: * Chord (music), an aggregate of musical pitches sounded simultaneously ** Guitar chord a chord played on a guitar, which has a particular tuning * Chord (geometry), a line segment joining two points on a curve * Chord ( ...

with three forward surfaces supported on a pair of box section booms. The upper foreplane was claimed to provide automatic stability and carried an elevator behind it, though Flight remarked that "It is difficult, from the illustration, to make out exactly what this arrangement is supposed to do." The pilot sat at the upper wing trailing edge, completely exposed at the front of a short central fuselage which supported a rectangular fin. Budig from above

By 1923 a small, BMW

horizontally opposed A flat engine is a piston engine where the cylinders are located on either side of a central crankshaft. Flat engines are also known as horizontally opposed engines, however this is distinct from the less common opposed-piston engine design, wh ...

motorcycle engine had been added, mounted in

pusher configuration In an aircraft with a pusher configuration (as opposed to a tractor configuration), the propeller(s) are mounted behind their respective engine(s). Since a pusher propeller is mounted behind the engine, the drive shaft is in compression in nor ...

behind the pilot who now sat at the leading edge of the upper wing behind a more substantial nose. It drove a very small diameter

propeller A propeller (colloquially often called a screw if on a ship or an airscrew if on an aircraft) is a device with a rotating hub and radiating blades that are set at a pitch to form a helical spiral which, when rotated, exerts linear thrust upon ...

. To accommodate the powerplant the central rear fuselage was replaced by rearward extensions of the booms, assisted by another, finer pair from the upper wings, which carried twin rectangular fins with a second elevator surface between them. Budig engine

The little engine probably did not have enough power to get the Budig airborne but was used to maintain altitude or decrease the sink rate; launches were made with the usual bungee cord catapult. Nonetheless, Flight noted it as " probably the first glider with an auxiliary engine to fly".

Specifications

References

{{reflist, refs= {{cite magazine , date=8 September 1921 , title=Soaring Flight in Germany, magazine= Flight, volume=XIII , issue=36 , pages=601, 603 , url= http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1921/1921%20-%200601.html {{cite magazine , date=4 January 1923 , title= Gliding, Soaring and Air-sailing, magazine= Flight, volume=XV , issue=1 , pages=9–11 , url= http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1923/1923%20-%200009.html 1920s German sailplanes Motor gliders Aircraft first flown in 1921 Biplanes