Burda relay
| Burda relay | |
|---|---|
| Country: |
 Germany
|
| Currently used aircraft type: | Piper PA-18 Super Cub |
| Sponsor: | Burda publishing house |
| Base airfield: | Baden-Baden-Oos and Kehl-Sundheim |
| Founding: | 1955 |
The Burda-Staffel was a German aerobatic team consisting of three Piper PA-18 Super Cubes .
founding
In contrast to the military and civil formations made up of jet planes or turboprops , the Burda squadron with its relatively comfortable Piper Cub showed, in addition to precision association flight, above all aeronautical gossip: air circus with colored smoke cartridges, balloon rammers, banner tow, glider tow and air circus. They occurred in well over 600 flight days in Germany.
The three cubs flew with their banners over Offenburg for the first time in May 1955 . The idea for a season came from the Hamburg bookseller Claus Kühl, who convinced the publisher Franz Burda . Burda did not have a license himself, but always had an open ear for aviation - and he recognized the enormous advertising effect of such a season for his Offenburg publishing house. During the week the pilots pulled banners through the skies over large cities or vacation areas with the text “Read picture and funk”, for example, on the fuselage and the wings, and on weekends they appeared on flight days .
Appearances and impact
In the 1960s there was hardly a flight day without the appearance of the Burda squadron. The clowneries of the head of the squadron, Gerhard Maier, are unforgettable: in disguise as a “Rebbäuerle von Durbach-Gebirg”, as a “Flying Professor” or as an “Air Prevention Inspector” he apparently unlawfully climbed one of the parked machines in front of the audience - to the (mock) horror of the airport spokesman -, started the engine of the Piper, started apparently rather clumsily and put down a flight program that Quax would have given the break pilot to fame - including engine shutdown and a mock landing for beginners. In addition, there were high-profile missions by the relay, such as landings on the frozen Titisee , landings with swimmers on the Wadden Sea or with runners on the Zugspitze plateau . In addition, victories in major competitions such as the Deutschlandflug or the Europaflug, which repeatedly generated positive press coverage.
The crew consisted of a dozen or so pilots. The beginning was made in 1955 by Claus Kühl as squadron captain, Gerhard Maier, Erwin Rohm and Joachim Illenberger. In 1958 Gerhard Maier was promoted to squadron captain, and in the course of the years the pilots Erwin Rohm, Emil Schmelzinger, Heinz Schönefeld, Wolfgang Widow, Helmut Auer, Kurt Dombacher, Helmut Gibus, Ingomar Lindner, Willi Buss, Paul König and Hansjörg stripeder were added.
resolution
The squadron was disbanded on July 31, 1973. By then, the pilots had covered 41,000 flight hours and theoretically six million kilometers, had occurred on over 600 flight days. The reason for Burda to dissolve the season was rising fuel prices and an increasingly critical environmental awareness.
The pilots dispersed in all directions. Most of them hired airlines and from then on steered jets and turboprops, Hansjörg stripseder joined the Glasflügel company , only Gerhard Maier stayed with Burda-Verlag and flew the twin-engine factory machine with the registration number D-IBUR , which was mainly between the publishing house Munich and the printing site Offenburg commuted and, in addition to passengers, mostly transported pictures and litho films in a hurry.
Accidents
There were only a few incidents: An emergency landing in a field in Kempten with no consequences because a gasoline line was frozen. A failed landing in deep snow on Piz Buin ended with the machine standing on its head, which ended lightly.
The new Burda season
Hansjörg stripseder, one of the earlier relay pilots, has now built an air circus based on the Burda relay with three super cubs, which he calls the “Bravo Lima formation”. In the tradition of the Burda season, the season offers a program similar to the original. It flies the same types of aircraft, only the blue paint with the Burda lettering is omitted. The Pipers fly in the original color of all Piper Cubs: a yellow with a strong orange tinge, which is reminiscent of the plumage of a chick - English cub .
literature
- Luigino Caliaro: acrobats of the air. The aerobatic teams in the world. Parbon Books Ltd., UK 2005, ISBN 1-4054-7905-1 .
- Volker K. Thomalla : Piper Cub, Super Cub. The history of the classic Piper aircraft. Aviatic-Verlag, Planegg 1991, ISBN 3-925505-17-2 , pp. 53-95.