Airfoil Development

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The Airfoild Development GmbH (AFD) is a company that in 1997 by Hanno Fischer and Klaus Matjašič in Mönchengladbach has been established to the designs of ground effect vehicles of Fischer flight mechanics lead to the production stage. For this purpose, AFD operates the construction and testing of prototypes and supports licensees for series production in an advisory capacity in the construction of production facilities.

history

Since 1979 Hanno Fischer has been working in his engineering office Fischer Flugmechanik with the fundamental questions of ground-effect vehicles. The test vehicle Airfish AF1 was self-made by Hanno Fischer and Klaus Matjasic. For the first Airfish AF-3 planned by Fischer Flugmechanik for series production , Rhein-Flugzeugbau in Mönchengladbach acquired the licenses to build a prototype and future series boats in 1990. The AF-3 prototype was then created at RFB. The series production of the AF-3 failed in 1993 due to the company's bankruptcy.

The Australian Flightship Ground Effect Pty. commissioned Fischer Flugmechanik in 1997 to develop an eight-seater taxi boat, including the construction of a model boat. For the construction of the Airfish AF-8 prototype , Hanno Fischer founded Airfoil Development GmbH in Mönchengladbach together with the financing company of Flightship Pty from Singapore. The first managing director of AFD was Klaus Matjasic.

Prototype construction

Airfoild Development received a free license from Fischer Flugmechanik to build the AF-8 prototype. Between 1999 and 2001 AFD produced the Airfish AF 8 prototype, which was tested by AFD from February 2001 on the Markenermeer in Holland and finally received the technical approval from Germanischer Lloyd. After approval was completed, the boat was bought by Flightship Pty. transferred as a sample machine to Cairns in Australia, where AFD supported the construction of the production line and the acquisition of the Australian operating license from the Queensland Transport Organization. The collaboration between AFD and Flightship Pty. ended in 2003. When Wigetworks Ltd. from Singapore took over the development of Flightship in April 2004, AFD again acted as an advisor for the operating license in Singapore.

For the construction of larger flying boats developed fishing and Matjašič at Fischer flight mechanics mid-nineties the Hoverwing technology. To test the new technology, Fischer Flugmechanik designed a Hoverwing HW2VT test vehicle. At the beginning of 1997, AFD was commissioned with the construction of the test vehicle and, together with the Institute for Inland Shipbuilding in Duisburg , submitted an application for funding to the Federal Ministry of Research and Technology (BMFT) to finance the construction. The construction took place in the summer of 1997 in Duisburg. The first flight took place on May 7, 1997 on Lake Baldeney near Essen. The testing of the test vehicle took place between 1998 and 2001 by AFD according to the specifications of Fischer Flugmechanik in Holland and on the Baltic Sea.

In 2008, Fischer Flugmechanik received the development order for a twenty-seater ferry boat from the Indonesian company PT AGEC Techno . To finance the prototype construction, PT AGEC took a stake in Airfoil Development GmbH in 2009 and commissioned the company with the construction of the prototype. AFD awarded the actual construction in 2010 to Aeroststruktur fiber composite technology GmbH in Gundelfingen. Due to the insolvency of the supplier, prototype construction had to be temporarily suspended in 2014. In 2015, AFD took over parts of the Aero structure operations in Gundelfingen in order to continue building the HW20 prototype independently. Delivery of the prototype to PT AGEC is scheduled for the end of 2017.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Paul Zöller: Rhein-Flugzeugbau GmbH and Fischer Flugmechanik , 2016, ISBN 978-3-7431-1823-2