The Bücker Bü 180 Student was a 1930s
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany, the country of the Germans and German things
**Germania (Roman era)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...
two-seat sporting/training aircraft built by
Bücker Flugzeugbau
Bücker-Flugzeugbau GmbH was a German aircraft manufacturer founded in 1932. It was most notable for Its highly regarded sports planes which went on to be used as trainers by the Luftwaffe during World War II.
History
The company was founded b ...
.
Development
In January 1937 Major
Werner Junck
Werner Junck (28 December 1895 – 6 August 1976) was a German general in the Luftwaffe during World War II, serving in Iraq and later in the Baltic campaign. He claimed five aerial victories during World War I.
Early life
Werner Junck was bor ...
, chief of the LC II, the technical wing of the
''Reichsluftfahrtministerium'' responsible for the development of new aircraft, informed various minor aircraft manufacturers such as
Bücker,
Fieseler
The Gerhard Fieseler Werke (GFW) in Kassel was a German aircraft manufacturer of the 1930s and 1940s. The company is remembered mostly for its military aircraft built for the Luftwaffe during the Second World War.
History
Gerhard Fieseler, the ...
,
Gothaer Waggonfabrik
''Gothaer Waggonfabrik'' (''Gotha'', GWF) was a German manufacturer of rolling stock established in the late nineteenth century at Gotha. During the two world wars, the company expanded into aircraft building.
World War I
In World War I, Go ...
,
Flugzeugwerke Halle and
Klemm
The Klemm Leichtflugzeugbau GmbH ("Klemm Light Aircraft Company") was a German aircraft manufacturer noteworthy for sports and touring planes of the 1930s.
The company was founded in Böblingen in 1926 by Dr. Hanns Klemm, who had previously work ...
that they would not get any contracts for the development of military aircraft. He therefore advised them to concentrate in the development of a ''
Volksflugzeug
The ''Volksflugzeug'' (People's Aircraft) was a grand Nazi Germany, Nazi-era scheme for the mass-production of a small and simple airplane in the 1930s. It was one of the attempts of the Nazi regime to use consumer technologies as a propaganda t ...
'' or a small twin-engined plane.
Following on from the success of the
Bü 133 Jungmeister the Bücker company designed the Bü 180, while the other companies produced the
Fi 253, the
Si 202, the
Kl 105 and the
Go 150
The Gotha Go 150 was a light aircraft designed at the German company Gothaer Waggonfabrik in the late 1930s. It was intended for civilian use, but ended up being used as a military trainer.
Development
In January 1937 Major Werner Junck, chief ...
.
It was a low-wing
cantilever
A cantilever is a rigid structural element that extends horizontally and is unsupported at one end. Typically it extends from a flat vertical surface such as a wall, to which it must be firmly attached. Like other structural elements, a cantilev ...
monoplane
A monoplane is a fixed-wing aircraft configuration with a single mainplane, in contrast to a biplane or other types of multiplanes, which have multiple wings.
A monoplane has inherently the highest efficiency and lowest drag of any wing con ...
that would be later used as a
trainer aircraft
A trainer is a class of aircraft designed specifically to facilitate flight training of pilots and aircrews. The use of a dedicated trainer aircraft with additional safety features—such as tandem flight controls, forgiving flight characteristic ...
and named ''Student''. The wing was of wooden construction with a mixture of
plywood
Plywood is a composite material manufactured from thin layers, or "plies", of wood veneer that have been stacked and glued together. It is an engineered wood from the family of manufactured boards, which include plywood, medium-density fibreboa ...
and fabric covering. The
fuselage
The fuselage (; from the French language, French ''fuselé'' "spindle-shaped") is an aircraft's main body section. It holds Aircrew, crew, passengers, or cargo. In single-engine aircraft, it will usually contain an Aircraft engine, engine as wel ...
was a steel tube frame forward and a wooden
monocoque
Monocoque ( ), also called structural skin, is a structural system in which loads are supported by an object's external skin, in a manner similar to an egg shell. The word ''monocoque'' is a French term for "single shell".
First used for boats, ...
aft with a fabric covering.
The Student had a fixed
tailskid landing gear and was powered by a
Walter Mikron
The Walter Mikron is a four-cylinder, air-cooled, inverted straight engine for aircraft.
Development
Developed in Czechoslovakia in the early 1930s, the engine saw limited use in late 1930s and early 1950s. In the 1980s an initial batch of engi ...
II
inline engine. The
prototype
A prototype is an early sample, model, or release of a product built to test a concept or process. It is a term used in a variety of contexts, including semantics, design, electronics, and Software prototyping, software programming. A prototype ...
first flew in
1937
Events
January
* January 1 – Anastasio Somoza García becomes President of Nicaragua.
* January 5 – Water levels begin to rise in the Ohio River in the United States, leading to the Ohio River flood of 1937, which continues into Feb ...
and a small number were built for civilian use.
Variants
;Bü 180A
:Production variant with a
Zündapp Z9-092
Zündapp (a.k.a. Zuendapp) was a major German motorcycle manufacturer founded in 1917 in Nuremberg by Fritz Neumeyer, together with the Friedrich Krupp AG and the machine tool manufacturer Thiel under the name "Zünder- und Apparatebau G.m.b.H." ...
engine.
;Bü 180B
:Production variant with a
Walter Mikron II
The Walter Mikron is a four-cylinder, air-cooled, inverted straight engine for aircraft.
Development
Developed in Czechoslovakia in the early 1930s, the engine saw limited use in late 1930s and early 1950s. In the 1980s an initial batch of engi ...
engine.
;Bü 180C
:Proposed variant with an
Bücker Bü M700 engine.
Specifications (Bü 180B)
See also
References
Notes
Bibliography
* Donald, David (editor). ''The Encyclopedia of World Aircraft''. Leicester, UK:Blitz, 1997. .
* König, Erwin. ''Bücker Bü 180 "Student", Bü 182 "Kornett", Bü 134: Drei geniale Flugzeugtypen, die dem Krieg zum Opfer fielen (Flugzeug Profile 36)'' (in German). D-86669 Stengelheim, Germany: Unitec Medienvertrieb e.K.,
* König, Erwin. ''Die Bücker-Flugzeuge (The Bücker Aircraft)'' (bilingual German/English). Martinsried, Germany: Nara Verlag, 1987. .
* König, Erwin. ''Die Bückers, Die Geschichte der ehemaligen Bücker-Flugzeugbau-GmbH und ihrer Flugzeuge'' (in German). (1979)
* Wietstruk, Siegfried. ''Bücker-Flugzeugbau, Die Geschichte eines Flugzeugwerkes'' (in German). D-82041 Oberhaching, Germany: Aviatik Verlag, 1999. .
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bucker Bu 180
Low-wing aircraft
Single-engined tractor aircraft
1930s German sport aircraft
Bücker aircraft
Aircraft first flown in 1937
Aircraft with fixed conventional landing gear