August Kupper

Ku 1 / Mü 3 "Cockatoo"

August Kupper (1905–1938) was an aeronautical engineer and temporarily headed Akaflieg Munich . His most successful design was the Ku 1 / Mü 3 "Kakadu" , which for years was the group's most powerful aircraft.

Ku 2 "eagle owl"

1928–29 he designed together with Dipl.-Ing. Kennel at the Polytechnikum Friedberg / Hessen the flying wing - high-decker " Uhu ". The machine had a wingspan of 17.1 m and was controlled by external elevons and end disc rudders. The " Uhu " (Ku 2) did not have sufficient flight characteristics. Later, Kupper tried to turn the aircraft into a powered glider by slightly backward sweeping the wing and installing a small engine . Here too the properties remained unsatisfactory.

Ku 3 / Mü 5 "Wastl"

The next attempt at a flying wing also failed: The Ku 3 / Mü 5 “Wastl” , in which Egon Scheibe was involved, was never made to fly.

Ku 4 "Austria"

Kupper's most famous construction was the “Austria” built for Robert Kronfeld . The Austria had a wingspan of 30 m, a double vertical tail unit on a tubular tail unit carrier and flaps along the entire trailing edge of the wing. It broke in the air during a flight of clouds, whereby Kronfeld was able to save himself with the parachute .

Gotha Go 147

The Gothaer Waggonfabrik hired August Kupper in 1935 to build a reconnaissance aircraft with the best possible defense against the rear. The result was a heavily swept, flying wing high-wing aircraft, the wings of which were attached to the fuselage with a sharp kink . This gave the pilot a good view forwards and upwards, while the observer had an almost unobstructed field of fire to the side and to the rear. The Go 147 had a wingspan of 12.25 m and was powered by an Argus As 17a with 200 hp. The control was carried out by Junkers double wings along the entire trailing edge of the wing and end disc rudder. The flight tests showed difficult landing characteristics and insufficient course stability . Since the Go 147 had no advantages over normal aircraft in terms of performance either, the project was discontinued in 1937.

August Kupper had a fatal accident in 1938 in his own construction Ku 7 . The Ku 7 was similar to the Austria, but was smaller and had a central vertical tail.

Aircraft constructions from Kupper

• Kupper Ku 1 "Kakadu" = Akaflieg Munich Mü 3 , 1928
• Kupper Ku 2 "Uhu", flying wings
• Kupper Ku 3 = Akaflieg Munich Mü 5 , flying wing, 1930
• Kupper Ku 4 "Austria" , glider with 30 m wingspan, 1931
• Kupper Ku 5?
• Kupper Ku 6?
• Kupper Ku 7, glider 1938

literature

• Rudolf Storck among others: Flying Wings. The historical development of the world's tailless and flying wing aircraft. Bernard and Graefe, Bonn 2003, ISBN 3-7637-6242-6 .
• Martin Simons: Sailplanes 1920–1945. 2nd Edition. EQIP Werbung & Verlag, Königswinter 2006, ISBN 3-9806773-4-6 .