Caspar C 32

Caspar C 32
Type:	Agricultural and long-haul aircraft
Design country:	German Empire
Manufacturer:	Caspar works
First flight:	1927
Commissioning:	1927
Production time:	1927/1928
Number of pieces:	4th

The Caspar C 32 is the first and only agricultural aircraft designed and built in Germany . With a converted copy, Otto Könnecke attempted to make a long-haul flight in stages from Cologne to New York across the Asian continent in 1927 , but this failed at Calcutta .

development

Work on an agricultural aircraft began at Caspar in Travemünde towards the end of 1926 and was carried out by Reinhold Mewes. Until then, only converted Grulich and F-13 passenger aircraft had been used in Germany for this purpose from 1925, but they could only carry a relatively small amount of about 300 to 400 kg of pesticides. The C 32 was able to carry 750 kg with a total payload of 900 kg. The required amount of arsenic dust was placed in a container located between the engine and the pilot's cabin at the height of the wings. The first prototype was presented to the public on March 4, 1927. The first large-scale operation to combat forest pests followed in June of that year near Köslin , during which 43 t of the Schering arsenic dust “Meritol” were spread over a wooded area of ​​around 1000 ha in 79 operations . A total of four C 32s were built and registered as D–1142bis D–1145. Despite its apparent suitability and robust construction, the C 32 was ultimately unable to prevail against the W 33 , the successor to the F 13 and, as a more powerful competitor model, capable of carrying 830 kg of payload with a total payload of 1260 kg. The planes were used for other purposes. The aircraft produced in 1928 with the serial number 7008, for example, was converted into a cargo aircraft and flown from 1929 to 1933 by Luft Hansa as D–1143"Wismar". It D–1145was converted into "Germania" in July 1927 for Otto Könnecke's planned ocean flight in Travemünde.

After the Caspar-Werke had to file for bankruptcy in 1928, negotiations with Raab-Katzenstein about a possible license production of the C 32 came about, but without any results.

Otto Könnecke's long-haul flight

The C 32 "Germania" in August 1927 in Tempelhof before the flight to Cologne

The former fighter pilot in World War I , Otto Könnecke, originally planned to cross the Atlantic in an east-west direction with a Rohrbach Roland , but decided differently and commissioned the Caspar-Werke at the end of July 1927 to convert a C 32 for long-haul routes. In return, the aircraft, baptized “Germania”, was given a closed pilot's cabin, a 600 km radio station St 257 F from Telefunken and two compasses from the Askania works . In the storage space freed by the removal of the chemical container, petrol cans were deposited with which the tank in the middle section of the upper wing was to be refilled by a second crew member using a hand pump. The owner of "Germania" and financier of the company, Georg Friedrich Graf zu Solms-Laubach , was intended for this task . As a useful side effect, the already emptied canisters should serve as a buoyancy aid in the event of a ditching . Since Könnecke thought the BMW IV engine installed in the C 32 was too weak, he provided an L 5 as an alternative . At the same time, Junkers' manufacturer was also preparing an ocean flight with two W 33s, which was in direct competition with Könnecke's project. The delivery and installation of the new drive delayed its departure and so the two W 33s "Europa" and "Bremen" were the first to take off from Dessau on August 14, 1927 , but had to turn around after reaching the Irish coast due to bad weather the “Europa” crash landed near Bremen and the “Bremen” arrived back in Dessau after a flight time of 22 hours. After this failure, Könnecke decided to give up the non-stop flight across the Atlantic and instead take a stage flight in an easterly direction via Asia to the USA. The shorter sections of the route made it possible to reduce the number of canisters and to use the freed-up capacity for a third crew member, the radio operator Hermann. On September 20, 1927, the "Germania" took off from Butzweilerhof Airport on its cross-country flight. The following route via Belgrade , Angora , Aleppo as well as Hinaidi and Shaiba in Iraq was affected by several accidents. Added to this were the high temperatures that prevailed when the Middle East was reached, which particularly troubled Count Solms-Laubach, who was in the narrow and stuffy cargo hold. After reaching the stage destination of Bandar Abbas in Iran, where the onward flight was delayed again due to engine problems, he therefore decided to return by ship. Könnecke and Hermann continued the onward flight together and reached Karachi in Pakistan on October 31, 1927 . They then took off for India, but had to make an emergency landing at Etawah on November 5 , with the stern of the C 32 being torn off. The serious damage to the aircraft as well as a malaria disease that occurred at Otto Könnecke made it pointless to continue the company, especially since the donors also pleaded for a termination and provided the financial means for the journey home of the aircraft and its crew by ship. The crew ignored the request and, after the repair of the aircraft and Könnecke's recovery, started with a delay of several months in the direction of Calcutta , where they asked for further funds upon arrival, but these were refused, so that Könnecke and Hermann had to start their journey home on February 25th . In August 1928, the C 32 "Germania" packed in boxes was returned to Germany, where it can still be traced back to 1933 in the holdings of the DLV Gießen .

construction

The C 32 is a tensioned double-decker made of wood . The fuselage consists of a rounded wooden frame with a rectangular cross-section and fabric covering. The front area is planked with sheet metal up to the fire bulkhead. Between the engine and the pilot's cabin there is a stowage space for accommodating the grit container or freight. In the case of the “Germania”, the actually open cockpit was closed with a pulpit. The structure with the upper and lower wings of the same span is strongly staggered and connected to each other and to the fuselage by N-struts. The two fuel tanks are located in the middle part of the upper wing. With the exception of the underside of the lower wing, which was covered with plywood to protect against slitting when touching a tree in deep flight, the structure was covered with fabric. The self-supporting tail unit was also covered with fabric and, as a special feature, was given a small trim tab above the elevator, in order to be able to quickly compensate for a shift in the center of gravity during agricultural use. The chassis consists of two rigid main wheels connected by an axle and a grinding spur at the rear.

Technical specifications

Three-sided view

Parameter	Data (basic version)	Data ("Germania")
crew	1	2-3
drive	a liquid-cooled six - cylinder four-stroke in - line engine
Type	BMW IV	Junkers L 5
Starting power continuous power	275 PS (202 kW) 230 PS (169 kW) at 4000 m	320 PS (235 kW) 280 PS (206 kW) close to the ground
length	9.10 m
span	15.00 m (top and bottom)
height	3.82 m	3.9 m
Wing area	53 m²
Wing loading	43.4 kg / m²	71 kg / m²
Power load	10.0 kg / m²	k. A.
Empty mass	1400 kg
Payload	900 kg	k. A.
Takeoff mass	2300 kg	3800 kg
Top speed	158 km / h	approx. 170 km / h
Landing speed	50 km / h	k. A.
Climbing time with 2300 kg takeoff weight	8.6 min at 1000 m altitude 20.4 min at 2000 m altitude 41.0 min at 3000 m altitude	k. A.
Climbing time with 2050 kg takeoff weight	6 min at 1000 m altitude 14 min at 2000 m altitude 27 min at 3000 m altitude	k. A.
Service ceiling	3700 m	approx. 4000 m
Range	k. A.	approx. 7500 km
Flight time	5 h	k. A.
Spreading power	100 ha / h	-

literature

• Karl-Dieter Seifert: German air traffic 1926–1945 - on the way to world traffic . Bernard & Graefe, Bonn 1999, ISBN 3-7637-6118-7 , pp. 283/284 .
• Marton Szigeti: Caspar C 32 "Germania" . In: Aviation Classics . No. 08/2017 . Motor Presse, Stuttgart 2017, p. 20-27 .

Web links

Commons : Caspar C 32  - Collection of Pictures, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

1. ^ Rolf Nagel, Thorsten Bauer: Kassel and the aviation industry since 1923 . Bernecker, Melsungen 2015, ISBN 978-3-87064-147-4 , pp. 54 .
2. ^ Günter Schmitt: Junkers and his planes . 2nd Edition. Transpress, Berlin 1986, ISBN 3-344-00065-9 , pp. 117/118 .
3. ↑ K. Grasmann (Ed.): Airplane type tables. DMZ 1925-1927 . 1977 (facsimile reprint of Deutsche Motor-Zeitschrift 7/1927).