Allgaier vulture
| Allgaier vulture | |
|---|---|
|
|
| Type: | Glider in timber |
| Design country: | |
| Manufacturer: |
Josef Allgaier |
| First flight: |
1955 |
| Number of pieces: |
<20 |
The Allgaier Geier is a single-seater performance glider designed and built in the first half of the 1950s by Nesselwang carpenter Josef Allgaier . Between 1955 and 1965 fewer than 20 copies were made in Germany. The gliding index is 88.
history
In 1951, carpenter Josef Allgaier manufactured the first “ Grunau Baby ” built in western post-war Germany in his carpenter's workshop in Allgäu. He then supplied parts of the Mü 13 and the Spatzen for Scheibe-Flugzeugbau . In his plant in Wank near Nesselwang, up to 12 employees were busy building wooden planes at peak times. When the orders from the Scheibe company subsided, Allgaier decided to design his own glider and manufacture it in his factory. It was supposed to be a high-performance sailor whose construction was so simple that it could also be manufactured as a kit in the clubs. For economic reasons, the Allgaier company had to stop building gliders in 1957 and later turned to plastics processing. In 1957 only three people were employed in aircraft construction.
construction
The aircraft had a fuselage completely clad in plywood and a very spacious cockpit. When designing the wings, Allgaier orientated himself on the successful performance sailors of his time, the consecration and the migratory bird . The surfaces received a good-natured Göttingen profile 549, similar to those of the consecration, but with more elongation . Compared to the consecration (1:29), the vulture was significantly more powerful with 1:32 in gliding performance. During the flight tests in 1955, the type examiner Hans Zacher was very impressed by the good flight characteristics of the prototype, "which was designed by a carpenter".
Versions
Vulture i
The Allgaier company only produced the prototype of this aircraft, which was later called Geier I. This was delivered to the LSV Worms. Nothing is known about the whereabouts of this aircraft. The company also supplied Vulture I kits to clubs. One of the kits went to LSG Kempten im Allgäu (D-1434). The original two-wheel drop landing gear on this Geier I was replaced by a fixed wheel in the 1970s. In 1977 the vulture was taken over by a British man from the Royal Air Force in Brüggen / Germany. When he was transferred to England in 1979, he took the plane with him. The vulture was then stationed for many years as BGA2557 / EBP at RAF Marham in Fenland. The EBP changed hands several times in England and was no longer airworthy as of July 21, 2001. According to the logbook , the last flight took place on September 28, 1996. The vulture then stood in various barns in Yorkshire and Wiltshire. In autumn 2009 members of the air sports group Kempten-Durach eV in the Allgäu brought the EBP back from England to its place of birth. Due to its regional importance for the Allgäu, but also because of the ingenuity of its Allgäu builder Josef Allgaier, the Bavarian State Office for Monument Preservation classified the Geier I as a listed building and in 2017 included it in the list of movable technical monuments. The Geier I is being completely overhauled by the Kempten Association and should be made airworthy again.
Vulture ii
But hardly had the prototype with the successful and good-natured wing profile Gö 549 of German development been completed in 1955, when the NACA , the predecessor authority of NASA , published new, more powerful wing profiles . With that, the Geier I was already out of date, despite its good flight characteristics and performance. Allgaier decided to revise the prototype. The fuselage remained unchanged. To increase performance, a new laminar profile, the NACA 633-618, which was also used in the Schleicher Ka 6, was used for the surfaces . The wingspan remained at 17.76 meters; the wing became much slimmer with an extension of 22.53 meters. The already excellent glide ratio of 32 for the "Geier I" rose to 35 for the successor "Geier II". The prototype of the "Geier II", the then D-1440 and later D-9129 with competition registration number CX, was built by Allgaier in just two months. The first flight took place on June 21, 1956 in Unterwössen . According to an old sales contract, the plane was sold for 8,000 DM and a few hundredweight of potatoes. The D-1440 competed at the 1956 World Championships in St. Yan, France, at the 1958 World Championships in Leszno (Poland) and at several German championships in the 1950s and early 1960s. The CX was stationed in Bisperode am Ith from 1971 to 1973 and went from there to the Klippeneck . In 1980 she was bought by an active member of the LSG Ravensburg ( airfield Mengen ) and took her to Unterwössen in 1985. In the flying school there, it was used to train pilots. At the end of 1999 the CX went to the "German Society for the Preservation of Historic Aircraft eV" and was stationed in Stillberghof near Donauwörth . It has been undergoing major overhaul since mid-2008.
Vulture IIB
After 1957, Geier production went to the Rock company in Inzell / Upper Bavaria, which had no experience in aircraft construction. Around 13 Geier II B were manufactured there by 1965. The spar, which was manufactured at Scheibe, has a 12-fold breaking load. In 1965 the production of the model was stopped. The maintenance of the sample was then transferred to the 1st Aero Club Stuttgart. The "B version" of the Geier II had a fully retracted canopy, enlarged ailerons , small clubs on the outer surfaces - so-called torpedo pegs - and instead of the runner with a dropping gear, a fixed, brakable wheel. This resulted in the following years to several heavy spin accidents, especially with slight pilots with rearward positions. The Geier II B were closed from March 1973 to February 1974 and were then again fully airworthy after a corrected center of gravity calculation. The first flight of serial number 03 - at that time still as D-1501 - took place on May 20, 1961 in Bad Reichenhall-Obermühle, in the aircraft tow behind a Fieseler Storch . She was initially stationed with the Alpine Aviation Group in Traunstein. It was stationed in Bissingen, Paderborn (there from 1965 as D-8154 and from 1966 as D-5828), Warburg and Feuerstein. It then came to Akaflieg Erlangen, where it underwent a major overhaul at the Eichelsdörfer company from 1986 to 1989 . The Association for Safety in Aviation in Bavaria had the aircraft from July 2006, but did not have any further inspections carried out in 2007. In 2008, the Geier changed into private hands and, following an extended airworthiness review, was flown on the Nastaatten glider airfield until 2016 . After that, the Luftsportgruppe Kempten-Durach eV in Allgäu took over the D-5828 (as of 2019).
Technical data Geier I, II and II B
| Parameter | Vulture i | Geier II and II B |
|---|---|---|
| crew | 1 | 1 |
| overall length | 8.20 m | 8.20 m |
| span | 17.76 m | 17.76 m |
| Wing area | 15.77 m² | 14 m² |
| Wing extension | 20th | 22.53 |
| Wing loading | 24.1 kg / m² | 26.43 kg / m² |
| Glide ratio | 32 at 68 km / h | 35 at 80 km / h |
| Slightest sinking | 0.55 m / s at 55 km / h | 0.65 m / s at 75 km / h |
| Preparation mass | 260 kg | 277 kg |
| Max. Takeoff mass | 360 kg | 370 kg |
| Top speed | 200 km / h | 170 km / h |
Preserved copies
- Geier I (
BGA2557/EBP) owned by the Luftsportgruppe Kempten-Durach eV, undergoing major overhaul - Geier II (
D-9129) owned by the Verein für Historische Segelflug eV, undergoing major overhaul - Geier II B (
D-5828) owned by the Luftsportgruppe Kempten-Durach eV, stationed on the Kempten-Durach airfield - Geier II B (
D-8467) in private ownership near Reutlingen, in major overhaul - Geier II B (
D-9192) privately owned, stationed at Winzeln-Schramberg airfield
literature
- Vintage Glider Club Ltd. (Ed.): The Vintage Glider Club - A celebration of 40 years preserving and flying historic gliders 1973–2013. Grantham, Lincolnshire (UK) 2013. page 31. ISBN 978-3-9814977-8-6
- Dietmar Geistmann: The gliders in Germany. Motorbuch-Verlag, Stuttgart 2nd edition 1994. ISBN 3-87943-618-5
- Jochen Ewald: The vulture's swoop. Fliegermagazin 6/1995, page 83
- Claudia Gallikowski: The vulture. Comfortable super ship from the fifties. Gliding 1/2012, pages 64–67
Web links
- www.geier2.de : The Geier homepage, accessed on February 22, 2019
- [1] : Documentation on Geier I, accessed on February 27, 2019
Individual evidence
- ↑ https://www.daec.de/fileadmin/user_upload/files/2018/Verband/Bundesausschuss_Kultur/Geier_1.pdf accessed on February 27, 2019
- ↑ http://www.rhoensperber.de/index.php/geier-ii-b/weiter-geier accessed on February 27, 2019
- ↑ http://www.rhoensperber.de/index.php/geier-ii-b/d-5828 accessed on February 27, 2019
- ↑ https://vfhs.wordpress.com/flugzeuge/ accessed on February 27, 2019
- ↑ http://www.luftsportgruppe-kempten.de/flugzeuge/ accessed on February 27, 2019