German research institute for gliding

German Research Institute for Gliding (DFS)
German research institute for gliding
Category:	research Institute
Consist:	1927-1945
Facility location:	Wasserkuppe ; Griesheim Airport ; Braunschweig ; Ainring Air Base
Areas of expertise:	Gliders , rocket propelled interceptors and gliders
Management:	Walter Georgii
Employee:	73 (1933) 680 (summer 1940)

The German Research Institute for Gliding ( DFS ) developed from 1927 to the end of the Second World War, many gliders , rocket-powered interceptor and gliders , including the DFS Habicht , the first fully aerobatic suitable glider. One of the projects that remained unfinished until 1945 was the stratospheric glider of space pioneer Eugen Sänger .

history

Memorial stone at the August Euler airfield

The institute emerged from the Rhön-Rossitten-Gesellschaft (RRG), an association of glider pioneers founded in 1925. The headquarters of the DFS was initially on the Wasserkuppe , in 1933 it was relocated to the Griesheim airfield , about six kilometers west of Darmstadt with its technical university , for reasons of space . There, DFS, which had 73 employees in 1933, was expanded under the direction of Walter Georgii into an important research center for aviation in Germany.

Subdivided into several institutes, for example for meteorology , for the development of tailless aircraft or the development of flight instruments , research was carried out in the field of civil aviation. Fritz Stamer became the head of the Institute for Flight Research . Another institute for aircraft construction dealt with the design of sailplanes; The head here was Hans Jacobs . The military was aware of the importance of the research results obtained, for example on airbrakes , aircraft towing and in- flight refueling, for the Air Force and promoted society. Hanna Reitsch , who worked there as a single flyer and later known as a test pilot in the Air Force, and the altitude record glider pilot Erich Klöckner also came from the ranks of DFS .

In 1937 the Aviation Engineering School (IfL) was founded at the DFS headquarters and run as Department 12. The institute headed by Alexander Lippisch , which was mainly concerned with the development of tailless aircraft, moved to Messerschmitt AG in Augsburg on January 2, 1939 and developed the Messerschmitt Me 163 there .

When the Second World War broke out in 1939, DFS was first relocated to Braunschweig and, due to a lack of space, finally to Ainring Air Base in the summer of 1940 . At that time it had 680 employees. The DFS was dissolved on April 28, 1945. The IfL continued to work - with the approval of the British occupation forces - at its last location in Wyk auf Föhr until the end of the summer semester 1945 and was finally closed on August 17, 1945.

Well-known aircraft types

• DFS Fafnir
• DFS 39 "Delta IV"
• DFS 40 "Delta V"
• DFS 42 "cormorant"
• DFS 193
• DFS 194
• DFS 203
• DFS 228
• DFS 230
• DFS 331
• DFS 332
• DFS 346
• DFS 582 "High altitude research aircraft with turbine drive"
• DFS sea eagle
• DFS hawk
• DFS heron
• DFS consecration
• DFS crane
• DFS Rhönsperber
• DFS Olympia Titmouse

Major experimental programs

• Early preliminary planning for the planned Heinkel He 343, which was later realized as a Soviet replica Ilyushin Il-22
• High-speed testing and checking of the tipping behavior of the Heinkel He 280 V7
• Exploration extreme updrafts in the environment of lee waves , as at Föhn arise
• Proof of the previously only suspected wave lift
• Climbing height records for gliders in foehn locations at the edge of the stratosphere
• Checking of brake rockets and towed vehicles
• Mistletoe flight - among other things for fighting mistletoe
• System testing of the automatic mine detonator for the later special command "Mausi"
• System testing for balloon deflectors in fan guns
• different types of aircraft towing
• Planning and wind tunnel tests for the Go 345 point landing aircraft
• Towing flight test of the Bachem Ba 349 rocket aircraft
• Testing the aircraft coupling in rope, short and rigid tow
• First testing of the Argus engines
• Testing of the PAG personal drop device
• Testing of automatically opening parachutes
• internal testing of the asymmetrical reconnaissance unit Blohm & Voss BV 141
• Testing of the Me 328 self-sacrificed aircraft
• Testing of the ramjet for the stratospheric glider by Eugen Sänger and Irene Bredt
• Concepts for the ramjet project Focke-Wulf-Triebflügel
• Concepts for remote control of the Fieseler Fi 103

literature

• Horst Lommel: From altitude reconnaissance to space glider 1935–1945, DFS secret projects. Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart 2000, ISBN 3-613-02072-6 .
• Alexander von Lünen: The German Research Institute for Gliding. In: A century of aviation history between tradition, research and landscape management. Edited by Andreas Göller and Annegret Holtmann, Darmstadt 2008, pp. 209–238.

Web links

Commons : German Research Institute for Gliding  - Collection of Images

• The Virtual Aviation Museum, aircraft of the German Research Institute for Gliding e. V.
• Swiss Aerobatic Gliding Association, page about the DFS Habicht

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Ralf Schabel: The illusion of miracle weapons. Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich 1994, ISBN 978-3-486-55965-1 , p. 40.
2. ↑ Ursula Eckstein: August Euler Airfield Darmstadt. Justus von Liebig Verlag, Darmstadt 2008, p. 167.
3. ↑ Focke-Wulf drive wing