Akaflieg Munich Mü 13

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Akaflieg Munich Mü 13
The MÜ 13 "Merlin"
Type: Glider
Design country:

German Reich NSGerman Reich (Nazi era) German Empire

Manufacturer:

Akaflieg Munich

First flight:

1936

Number of pieces:

2 prototypes (over 150 replicas)

The Akaflieg Munich Mü 13 is a glider of the student flying group Akaflieg Munich and was designed by Egon Scheibe with the participation of Kurt Schmidt and Tony Tröger. It was considered to be one of the most successful gliders of its time and, in a two-seater version from the Scheibe-Flugzeugbau GmbH under the name Mü 13 E Bergfalke, was one of the most popular training aircraft of the post-war period.

The modified replica of a Mü 13 D has been in the possession of Akaflieg Munich again since 2000 and is being completely overhauled (as of 2019).

history

Due to the success of the Mü 10 and at the insistence of Kurt Schmidt, Egon Scheibe began designing a single-seat glider in 1935. As a result, two prototypes, the Mü 13 “Merlin” and the Mü 13 “Atalante”, were built. In particular, co-designer Tony Tröger paid particular attention to the possibility of retrofitting an engine. In 1937 the "Merlin" was equipped with an engine and henceforth referred to as the "Motormerlin".

The "Atalante", on the other hand, which was built with a lot of personal and financial commitment by Kurt Schmidt, remained a glider and was later flown for the first time at the 17th Rhön competition in 1936 . He won the competition by superiority and the "Atalante" became one of the most successful gliders of the 1930s. In 1939 a variant of the "Atalante" was built as Mü 13 D by the Schwarzwald Flugzeugbau Wilhelm Jehle company in Donaueschingen . Of the more than 150 copies built, several are still preserved today.

1951 founded Egon disc the disc-aircraft GmbH and built as a first plane, the disc Mü 13 E Bergfalke I . It was a two-seater version of the Mü 13. The Bergfalken series was one of the most popular training aircraft of the post-war period.

construction

With the Mü 13, the Munich school founded by Egon Scheibe finally celebrated its breakthrough. The Mü 13 shared the tubular steel fuselage, the profile and the tail unit arrangement with its predecessor, the Mü 10 . The surfaces were made of wood. Due to the low weight of the fuselage and the short tail, the cockpit is located just in front of the surface. This leads to a restricted field of vision for the pilot, which is partly offset by additional side windows in the fuselage. Flaps were installed over the entire length of the surface to improve the slow circling in the thermal.

variants

The Mü 13 E Bergfalke I
The Mü 13 "Motormerlin"

Mü 13 D

Building on the successful Mü 13 “Atalante”, the Mü 13 D1 variant was manufactured by Schwarzwald Flugzeugbau Wilhelm Jehle in Donaueschingen from 1939 onwards. The Mü 13 D1 was further developed up to a variant Mü 13 D3 with an elongated fuselage and larger rudder, which was first built in 1942. A total of 150 of the three types had been produced by the end of the war. In the 1950s, three aircraft were replicated by glider clubs.

In 1955 Akaflieg München built a Mü 13 D (D-1305) with changes in the design: the front part of the fuselage and the wing tips were modified and the tail unit of a Bergfalken II was used. The aircraft has been in the possession of Akaflieg Munich again since 2000, was added to Bavaria's list of monuments in 2014 as a movable technical cultural asset and is (as of 2019) undergoing major overhaul.

Disk Mü 13 E Bergfalke I

After the Second World War, Egon Scheibe designed a two-seater version of the Mü 13 and sold it very successfully as a training aircraft with his Scheibe-Flugzeugbau GmbH.

Mü 13 "Motormerlin"

In 1937, a Köcher-Kröber M4 engine with 18 hp was installed in the Mü 13 “Merlin”. Due to the slow Mü profile used, the Mü 13 “Motormerlin” could be landed at only 45 km / h, which also explains the lack of a wheel brake. The motor glider reached a top speed of 125 km / h.

Technical specifications

Parameter Data of the Mü 13 "Merlin"
crew 1
length 6.02 m
span 16 m
Wing area 16.16 m²
Wing extension 15.84
Glide ratio 28
Slightest sinking 0.6 m / s at 55 km / h
Empty mass 170 kg
Max. Takeoff mass 270 kg

See also

literature

  • Georg Brütting: The most famous gliders . Motorbuch, Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 978-3-87943-171-7 .
  • Frank-Dieter Lemke, Rolf Jacob: Research - Build - Fly. The Academic Fliegergruppen (Akaflieg) in Germany until 1945. Part 1. In: Flieger Revue extra, 29th issue, June 2010, pp. 18–31.
  • Martin Simons: Sailplanes 1920–1945 . EQIP, Königswinter 2001, ISBN 3-9806773-4-6 .

Web links

Commons : Akaflieg München Mü13  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c The Mü 13 “Merlin” on the Akaflieg Munich website , accessed on July 30, 2012
  2. ↑ Frank-Dieter Lemke, Rolf Jacob: Research - Build - Fly. The Academic Fliegergruppen (Akaflieg) in Germany until 1945. Part 1. In: Flieger Revue extra, 29th issue, June 2010, p. 24.
  3. ↑ Martin Simons: Sailplanes 1920–1945. Eqip, Königswinter 2001, ISBN 3-9806773-4-6 , p. 136.
  4. ↑ The mu 13 www.scalesoaring.co.uk ( Memento of 28 December 2011 at the Internet Archive ), accessed July 30, 2012
  5. ↑ Mü 13d. (PDF; 780 kB) In: daec.de. Retrieved July 11, 2019 .