Rhine aircraft construction

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Rhein Flugzeugbau GmbH (RFB)
legal form Company with limited liability
founding 1956
resolution 1990s
Reason for dissolution insolvency
Seat Mönchengladbach , Germany
management
  • Theo Meyenburg (managing director; from 1960s)
  • Wolfgang Kutscher (Managing Director; from 1971)
  • Gerhard Seeger (Managing Director; from 1991)
  • Hartmut Stiegler (Managing Director; from 1992)
  • Christoph Fischer (Technical Director)
Branch Aircraft manufacturer

The Rheinflugzeugbau GmbH , based at Airfield Mönchengladbach was founded in 1956 by Kaether & Co. and the Deilmann-Montan GmbH and existed until the 1990s. It had factories in Krefeld and from 1958 on the Mönchengladbach airfield. Since the late 1960s, the Sportavia-Pützer company on the Dahlemer Binz has also been part of the RFB production sites. The first managing director was Oskar Steinbach .

history

Deilmann subsidiary (1956–1968)

One of the most famous aircraft designers at this company was Hanno Fischer , who was responsible for the RW-3 aircraft that was well known in the 1950s . Several copies of the RW-3 were made, a few of which were still airworthy at the beginning of the 21st century. Another design, the RF-1 , a touring aircraft with six seats and a so-called channel wing for short take-off properties, was created around 1960. It only remained with the prototype, as the flight properties were not satisfactory.

At the beginning of the 1960s, Carl Deilmann took over the RFB shares from his partner Willi Käther , who returned to his former employer Weser-Flugzeugbau . Theo Meyenburg took over the management of RFB. The RFB workshop operation at the Kaether works in Krefeld was completely relocated to Mönchengladbach airfield by 1964. The focus of the RFB activities in the 1960s was the expansion of the military maintenance business for the Bundeswehr , u. a. with a maintenance company in the Bundeswehr at Cologne-Wahn Airport . Since the mid-1960s, RFB took over the operation of target display flights in Lübeck-Blankensee for the German armed forces . From the mid-1960s, Rhein-Flugzeugbau was involved with Bölkow and Pützer in the development of the world's first all-plastic powered aircraft under the name LFU 205 from Leichtflugtechnik Union LFU. At the end of the 1960s, Rhein-Flugzeugbau acquired Alfons Pützer's shares in the sports aircraft manufacturer Sportavia-Pützer on the Dahlemer Binz.

VFW subsidiary (1968–1981)

In 1968 Carl Deilmann initially sold 65% of his RFB shares to the United Flugtechnischen Werke (VFW) in Bremen. After the merger of VFW and Fokker to form VFW-Fokker GmbH, the latter acquired the remaining 35% of Deilmann's shares in RFB by 1971. Wolfgang Kutscher from VFW took over the management of RFB in the same year.

With the test vehicle Rhein-Flugzeugbau Sirius , Hanno Fischer initiated the development of the jacketed screw drive in 1968 for the later Rhein-Flugzeugbau Fanliner and RFB Fantrainer , which flew for the first time in Mönchengladbach between 1973 and 1977. In the 1980s, the Fantrainer developed into the most successful aircraft type at Rhein-Flugzeugbau, more than 40 of which were sold to Thailand. Although the fan trainer emerged as the winner in two Bundeswehr trainer tenders, no machine could be sold to the Bundeswehr. The fan trainer was also unable to prevail in two USAF tenders . In the mid-1980s, Fischer developed a six-seater touring aircraft variant based on the Fantrainer under the name RFB Fanstar , which the Canadian Bill Rice wanted to build under license in Canada at Fanstar Partners Inc. However, the project did not come to fruition. Fanjet Aviation has been investigating the new edition of a series of a modernized fan trainer since 2010.

At the end of the 1960s, Hanno Fischer and Alexander Lippisch worked together to build a research aircraft for ground-effect studies. The Federal Ministry of Defense commissioned Rhein-Flugzeugbau to build the Rhein-Flugzeugbau X.113 . After the tests on Lake Constance had been successfully completed, Fischer and Lippisch received the order to build the larger six-seater Rhein-Flugzeugbau X.114 , with which the tests on the Baltic Sea were continued. The X.114 was destroyed in 1978 during a test flight on the Baltic Sea. Hanno Fischer then suggested to the Ministry of Defense to build an improved Rhein-Flugzeugbau RFB.215 and a Rhein-Flugzeugbau X.117 . The Ministry of Defense, however, had no further interest in researching ground-effect vehicles , which ended the development at Rhein-Flugzeugbau. Hanno Fischer founded Fischer Flugmechanik at the end of the eighties and has continued the research and development of ground-effect vehicles here to this day.

MBB subsidiary (1981–1990)

After the dissolution of VFW-Fokker GmbH , Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm took over the United Flugtechnische Werke (VFW) and its subsidiary Rhein-Flugzeugbau GmbH in 1981. As an MBB subsidiary, RFB primarily expanded its military business areas with maintenance and repair, target presentation and marketing of the military fan trainer. In terms of development, the focus was mainly on military work. a. the development of ejection seats for the Alpha Jet or devices for fighting helicopters. For Airbus , RFB took over the component production in the A300 program.

ABS subsidiary (1990–1994)

Alfred Schneider took over the management in 1989. After the integration of the MBB parent company into Deutsche Aerospace , RFB was sold to ABS International by Albert Blum in 1990 . Gerhard Seeger took over the management in 1991, followed a year later by Hartmut Stiegler . The former Sportavia-Pützer company on the Dahlemer Binz was spun off into ABS Aircraft GmbH in 1992 . W + Swartung und Service Airline GmbH was founded to take up the maintenance business. The RFB core operations have been focused on development and manufacturing. The target display business had already been transferred to Pilatus in Switzerland in 1990 .

In the RFB development company, under the new technical director Christoph Fischer, the draft of the later MBB fan ranger was worked out as a successor model for the fan trainer in the early 1990s on behalf of DASA . But in order to elaborate even by Hanno Fischer designs of fishing WhisperFan and fishing Whisper Whale as a successor to the RFB Fanliner or by Fischer flight mechanics developed three AF Fischer Airfish yet to lead to the production stage, beginning lacked the nineties the means. No interested parties were found for the improved designs of the FT-800, FT-1000 and the RFB Tiro Trainer , which Christoph Fischer developed for the Thai Air Force . The establishment of a series production of the Hoffmann H.40 , for which Blum had acquired the license rights, also failed to materialize.

Insolvency and liquidation (1993-2006)

With the insolvency of the RFB parent company ABS International in 1993, the subsidiary Rhein-Flugzeugbau GmbH also became insolvent. Operations largely came to a standstill in 1993/94. A new investor could not be found for the company. On April 1, 1997, the Mönchengladbach District Court issued a bankruptcy decision. Aircraft, development documents and inventory of the RFB were auctioned in 1997. The Fanjet Aviation GmbH acquired the rights to the Fantrainer development, as well as the name of RFB and VFW. Flightship Ground Effect Pty. acquired the development of the RFB X-113 ground effect test vehicle and continued the work together with Fischer Flugmechanik. The former RFB managing director Hartmut Stiegler founded a number of rescue and successor companies that were primarily supposed to ensure the maintenance of RFB products. One of these companies operates again today under the name Rheinflugzeugbau GmbH in Krefeld. Rhein-Flugzeugbau GmbH , founded in 1956, was deleted from the trade register in Mönchengladbach in 2006 .

Aircraft types

Realized drafts

Drafts not implemented

Licensed buildings

  • Rhein-Westflug RW-3 , two-seater light aircraft from Rhein-Westflug, license production at RFB 1958–1961
  • Fischer Airfish AF-3 , two-seat sport TIG from Fischer Flugmechanik, only a prototype was created at RFB
  • Fischer Whisperfan , civilian, four-seater fan trainer with Whisperfan drive, no start of production
  • Fischer Whisperwhale , civilian, four-seater swimmer variant of the Whisperfan, no start of production
  • Hoffmann H.40 , two-seat ultralight aircraft, no production start
  • MFI-10C , two-seat trainer aircraft based on the MFI-10 with more powerful engines from 1993, no start of production

See also

owner

people

Related companies

literature

Web links

Commons : RFB aircraft  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Bürger Zeitung Mönchengladbach: Opening of the Mönchengladbach airfield at the Niersbrücke. Retrieved June 11, 2017 .
  2. ↑ Alexander Steenbeck: 100 years Blankensee, ISBN 978-3-00-053574-1 . 2016.
  3. ^ C. Deilmann GmbH & Co. KG, Bentheim: 125 years of Deilmann . 2014 ( cdeilmann.de [PDF; accessed on June 11, 2017]).
  4. ^ Rhein-Flugzeugbau: Fanstar presentation . 1982.
  5. ^ Rhein-Flugzeugbau: RFB 215 advertising brochure . 1978.
  6. ^ Paul Zöller: Rhein-Flugzeugbau GmbH and Fischer flight mechanics . 2016, ISBN 978-3-7431-1823-2 .
  7. ^ Schleiden Local Court: Commercial Register . 1992.
  8. ↑ Fischer flight mechanics: Airfish AF-3. Retrieved June 11, 2017 .
  9. ↑ Mönchengladbach District Court: Document 20N59 / 96 . 1997.