Lippisch stork
| Lippisch stork | |
|---|---|
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| Type: | brushless test aircraft |
| Design country: | |
| Manufacturer: | |
| First flight: |
1927 |
| Production time: |
1926-1935 |
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The Storch series was a series of tailless aircraft that Alexander Lippisch developed at the Rhön-Rossitten-Gesellschaft (RRG) and later at the German Research Association for Gliding (DFS). The knowledge and failures gained with the Storch series and the parallel developed Delta series contributed significantly to the development of all later tailless aircraft from the Delta -Jet to the hang-glider .
history
In 1909, the then 15-year-old Alexander Lippisch had seen Orville Wright's flight demonstrations in Berlin, which made him enthusiastic about aviation. In 1918 he got a job at Zeppelin / Dornier in Lindau / Bodensee. Here he was able to familiarize himself with the basics of aerodynamics. After a few model tests and a seat glider built with Gottlob Espenlaub in 1921 and the Storch forerunner E2 "Experiment", Lippisch was called to the Wasserkuppe in 1925 as head of the technical department of the Rhön-Rossitten-Gesellschaft (RRG) . Here some famous gliders such as the “Professor” , Kronfeld's “Vienna” , the “Falcon” and the high-performance glider “Fafnir” were built under his direction .
In 1926/27 he got the opportunity to continue his work on tailless aircraft. The most important peculiarity of the resulting "storks" I – V is that a normal high lift profile was used at the wing root. In order to compensate for the profile moment, it was installed lying on the back at the wing tips. "Bubi" Nehring undertook the first flights in the autumn of 1927. The inadequate flight characteristics could not be significantly improved by various modifications until, at the suggestion of Igo Etrich and Prof. Focke, a deepened and rounded shape of the wing flaps was built. The aircraft, known as the Storch IV , was successfully tested by Günther Groenhoff in 1929.
The positive results led to a conversion to the Storch V motor glider . For this purpose, a DKW engine with only 8 HP was built into the 12.3 m spanning machine. On some longer flights, Groenhoff noticed an uncomfortable top-heavy rudder force. That is why two small auxiliary surfaces were added later, which were positioned freely in the air flow behind the elevons and relieved the pilot.
Parallel to the work on the Delta types , the Storch series was continued with Lippisch's help. In 1931 the first thing to do was a small powered airplane with the name Storch VII "Hans Huckebein" . This had been designed by Groenhoff with Lippisch's help only for the purpose of winning a prize offered by a Berlin newspaper. The Stork VII had a wingspan of 12 meters.
Lippisch himself only dealt with a stork again in 1933, the simple school glider Storch IX with braced wings. The school glider had a wingspan of 10.4 meters. The school glider was first converted into a training glider with a closed fuselage.
In 1933 this resulted in the light motorized aircraft Storch IX b. This machine was flown until 1937, and was finally given a new fuselage in fabric-covered tubular steel construction. The pilot's head fairing ran out into a fin, which noticeably improved the flight characteristics. At times a third wheel was installed under the nose of the fuselage.
The last flying wing based on a stork was the DFS 38 , which was difficult to control due to its too soft wings and which is why it was nicknamed “ Quo Vadis ”.
Derivatives
- In 1932, Ernst Phillip built a stork on a private basis in Landsberg / Warthe , which was enlarged to 14 meters and named " Marabu ". The Marabu could also be flown with an extended fuselage and an additional elevator. There are pictures of another enlarged, self-supporting stork whose origin cannot be determined.
- Dipl.-Ing. Waldemar Beyer worked as a designer at RRG. In 1932 he built the practice sailor " Krischan " in Rossitten . This machine also showed certain similarities with Lippisch's storks, but had much slimmer wings. The sailor was flown into the Curonian Lagoon in 1932 and exhibited shortly afterwards in Berlin. The originally hexagonal hull was later replaced by a much more elegant one with an oval cross-section. The Krischan was flown until 1934, then it loses its track.
- In 1936, the Italian Luigi Teichfuss built a stork-like motor sailer named “ Cicogna ” with a 14 m span.
- The Kirchner " Futurum " still existed. This construction represents a scaled-down version of the storks from Lippisch. The span was 8.6 m and the empty weight 42 kg. The flight tests took place in Kassel in 1931
literature
- Alexander Lippisch, Fritz Trenkle : A triangle flies - The history of the Delta aircraft up to 1945. Motorbuch-Verlag, Stuttgart 1976, ISBN 3-87943-467-0 .
- 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 GmbH, Königswinter 2006, ISBN 3-9806773-4-6 .