FAG Chemnitz C 10
| FAG Chemnitz C 10 | |
|---|---|
| Type: | Motor sailer |
| Design country: | |
| Manufacturer: | |
| First flight: |
September 5, 1940 |
| Number of pieces: |
2 |
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The C 10 and C 10a were two motor gliders developed in the 1940s and, with their extremely progressive design, the forerunners of the types of this design used today.
development
The C 10 was developed in 1939 at the Aviation Technology Working Group (FAG) of the State Academy for Technology in Chemnitz (today Chemnitz University of Technology ) by Hans Wünscher , who after completing his studies in February 1938 at the Chemnitz Academy took up a position at FAG as assistant to the Head Martin Günther exercised. Wünscher had been working on the construction of a motor glider since 1933 and was inspired by the wren , the 1930 by Herbert Gropp, at the time also a Chemnitz FAG member, had been planned and built. In order to minimize the resistance of the motor drive and the propeller, Wünscher developed a two-part tail unit into which the propeller and shaft were integrated. When the drive was switched off during the flight, the propeller blades automatically folded up due to the airflow; when the engine was started, they were swiveled into the working position by the centrifugal forces generated at the speeds. This modern working principle was issued to Wünscher as a patent on September 12, 1939. The construction of the C 10 by a FAG working group under the leadership of workshop manager Karl Fritsch had already started. On September 5, 1940, the first flight of the glider with the registration D–YFAGby Hans Wünscher took place in Chemnitz . The aircraft was then transferred to the DVL in Adlershof for further tests , to which Wünscher had meanwhile switched. There it was flown by several pilots on a trial basis and received consistently positive reviews. But on October 1, 1940, the C 10 was destroyed; the pilot Herbert Schmidt had fallen below the relatively high minimum speed of 85 km / h, had started to spin and was killed in the crash.
However, the concept had convinced the DVL and so they commissioned the construction of a second copy. In contrast to its predecessor, this one was made of wood instead of a tubular steel hull. It was given the designation C 10a and took off D–YFATon its maiden flight in Chemnitz in the summer of 1942 . Further testing was continued by Hans Wünscher at the Prague-Letňany airfield . During a comparative flight in Darmstadt in August 1943, the model was flown again by different pilots and judged consistently positive, but was eliminated from the competition on August 27 due to a defective fuel pump . After the end of the test series, the C 10a came back to Chemnitz. It burned there on the night of March 5 to 6, 1945, together with three other FAG aircraft in an Allied air raid that completely destroyed FAG's office, workshop and design rooms.
construction
The body of the C 10 consisted of a fabric-covered, load-bearing tubular steel frame with molded strips ( mixed construction ), that of the C 10a was made of wood ( wooden construction ). The engine area was clad with duralumin . This was followed by the high-set, two-part tail unit carrier made of steel, into which the folding propeller was integrated. The supporting structure and tail unit consisted of a wooden framework that was also covered with fabric. A special feature of the aircraft was that the engine could only be started from the driver's seat and the propeller blades could be folded into recesses in the tail unit support. This solution developed by Hans Wünscher was intended to reduce the sailor's drag.
Technical specifications
| Draft: | Hans Wünscher, FAG. Chemnitz |
| Manufacturer: | FAG Chemnitz |
| Type: | C 10 |
| Design: | Shoulder decker |
| Design type: | self-supporting |
| Usage: | Motor sailer |
| Engine: | a two - cylinder Kroeber M 4 boxer engine , 18 hp (13 kW), air-cooled |
| Crew: | 1 |
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See also
Web links
- archiv.tu-chemnitz.de The State Academy of Technology in Chemnitz during the Nazi era (1933–1945). Picture of the aircraft on p. 99; (PDF file; 450 kB)
literature
- Frank-Dieter Lemke: C-10 - The first “clean” motor glider. In: Aviation Classics No. 2/2020, Motor Presse Stuttgart, pp. 30–35.
- Frank-Dieter Lemke: Positions of a German aerospace engineer. Herbert Gropp was only 32 years old. Self-published, 2nd edition, Berlin 2015, ISBN 978-3-95735-032-9 , p. 26.
- Karl-Dieter Seifert: The Chemnitz Academy and its aircraft 1910-1945. Nora, Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-86557-271-4 .
- Helmut Schneider: Airplane type book. Handbook of the German aviation and accessories industry. Reprint of the original edition from 1944. Gondrom, Bindlach 1986, ISBN 3-8112-0484-X , p. 92.