The Farner HF Colibri 1 SL was an unusual

canard Canard is French for duck, a type of aquatic bird. Canard may also refer to: Aviation *Canard (aeronautics), a small wing in front of an aircraft's main wing * Aviafiber Canard 2FL, a single seat recreational aircraft of canard design * Blé ...

motor glider with a unique control system, designed and built in

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

in the late 1970s. Only one was constructed; much modified during the 1980s, it was still flying in 1990.

Design and development

Hans U. Farner was an innovative

Swiss Swiss may refer to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina *Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses *Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports *Swiss Internation ...

aircraft designer whose footlaunched

ultralight sailplane had briefly reached production in 1966. In November 1974 he filed a patent for a novel control system, particularly suitable for canards. This suggested mounting the canard on a slender tube which slid snugly within a second long forward tube that, together with a pod containing an engine, pilot and bearing mainplanes, formed the fuselage. Extension of the canard-carrying tube by means of fore and aft control column movement increased the canard's moment arm and increased pitch. The

angle of attack In fluid dynamics, angle of attack (AOA, α, or \alpha) is the angle between a reference line on a body (often the chord line of an airfoil) and the vector representing the relative motion between the body and the fluid through which it is m ...

of the canard was automatically altered as this happened. Rotating the tube about its long axis by rudder pedal movement turned the canard away from the horizontal and caused yaw, removing the need for a vertical rudder. Wing mounted

aileron An aileron (French for "little wing" or "fin") is a hinged flight control surface usually forming part of the trailing edge of each wing of a fixed-wing aircraft. Ailerons are used in pairs to control the aircraft in roll (or movement around ...

s controlled roll in the usual way. The Farner HF Colibri 1 SL motor glider, designed, built and test flown by Hans Farner in the late 1970s embodied these ideas. It had a very high aspect ratio (31.7) wing with a constant

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 ( ...

centre section carrying dihedral. Outer panels, with anhedral, combined with the inner section to form a cantilever gull wing. These outer panels had straight taper on the leading edges only, and rotated as all-moving ailerons or "tiperons" for

roll control Roll or Rolls may refer to: Movement about the longitudinal axis * Roll angle (or roll rotation), one of the 3 angular degrees of freedom of any stiff body (for example a vehicle), describing motion about the longitudinal axis ** Roll (aviation), ...

. The wing was mounted on top of a narrow fuselage pod, with the pilot under a rear hinged canopy well forward of its leading edge. The Colibri was a twin engined motor glider, with two single cylinder two stroke

McCulloch MC-101 The McCulloch MAC-101, also called the MC-101 and MC101, is a two-stroke, single cylinder engine that was designed and produced by McCulloch Motors Corporation for kart racing use, being introduced in 1967. It was also used in the late 1970s and ...

A, each of driving a two blade

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 ...

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 ...

via reduction gear and a high positioned shaft, just below and a little way behind the trailing edge. Under the drive shaft the fuselage remained deep but tapered rearwards into two door like aerofoils with straight, vertical trailing edges that could be opened symmetrically outwards as an airbrake. Positioned well behind the centre of gravity, they closed together as the only fin. Forward of the cockpit the fuselage curved gently upwards into a tubular, straight, tapering, rising boom. The parallel chord, unswept, high aspect ratio canard, carried on its constant diameter tube in the manner described in the patent, providing lift and both yaw and pitch control. The first flight date is uncertain but the Colibri was complete by late 1979. The written record post-1980 is sparse but photographs show it was still flying in 1990, when it appeared at a display in Belgium. It had visited the UK in 1989, coming to the PFA meeting at Cranfield. During the 1980s it had undergone considerable modification to the novel control system, with high aspect ratio, swept fins on the wings first at the outer end of the centre section, just before the start of the rotating tiperons, and then at the wing tips. These images suggest that conventional flight control surfaces were added to both fore and aft wings as well as to the fins. The extensible fuselage also seems to have been abandoned by 1989.

Specifications

References

{{reflist, refs= {{cite book , title=Gliders & Sailplanes of the World, last= Hardy , first= Michael , year=1982, publisher=Ian Allan Ltd, location= London, isbn=0-7110-1152-4, pages=151–2 {{cite book , title= Jane's All the World's Aircraft 1981-1982, last= Taylor, first= John W. R. , year=1981, publisher= Jane's Information Group, location= London, isbn=0710607059, pages=575, 598–9 {{cite web , url=https://www.google.com/patents/US4010920, title=Farner's patent , access-date=2 September 2013 {{cite journal , date=August 1989 , title= PFA meeting, Cranfield, journal=Air Britain News, page=411 {{cite web, url=http://www.nefarious-240z.com/Pub/Aircraft/Swiss-Farner-HF-Colibri-1-SL.jpg, title=Colibri with inset fins, access-date=3 September 2013{{Dead link, date=August 2019 , bot=InternetArchiveBot , fix-attempted=yes {{cite web , url=http://www.abpic.co.uk/search.php?q=Farner%20Colibri%20SL-1&u=type, title=Colibri with tip fins, 1988 & 1989 , author= George Trussell, access-date=3 September 2013 {{cite web , url=http://www.aironline.nl/weblog/2011/05/28/in-the-picture-hb-2036-farner-colibri-sl-1/, title=Colibri at Keiheuval, 1990 , date=28 May 2011 , access-date=3 September 2013

External links

Wortmann 61-184 airfoilWortmann 60-126/1 airfoil
Canard aircraft Twin-engined pusher aircraft 1970s Swiss aircraft High-wing aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1979