Weltensegler-Werke
The International Sailing-Werke GmbH was established in 1920 as a glider Werke GmbH in Baden-Baden from Friedrich Wenk founded. The company, renamed Weltensegler-Gesellschaft in 1922, built gliders and light aircraft. In the workshops that were located on the Wasserkuppe in 1921 , Alexander Lippisch and Max von Pilgrim also worked as designers for a short time . The company was shut down in 1925.
Friedrich Wenk had already experimented with model airplanes in his youth and found out that a perfectly normal rectangular wing could be stabilized by angling the wing tips backwards and downwards and at the resulting kink ("Weltensegler kink") built a so-called skew jump. He brought this knowledge mainly into his well-known tailless constructions “Feldberg” and “Baden-Baden Stolz”. But the Grunau 7 "Moatzagotl" he designed and the Gö-3 "Minimoa" derived from it also bear his signature .
Products
Feldberg
The flying wing glider "Feldberg" had a rectangular wing center part with a V-shape , which was supported by a strut mechanism. This was followed by the downward angled outer wing. The control was unique because the outer wings could be adjusted using a cable. The counterforce was generated by springs, which should turn out to be insufficient for practical flight operations.
The aircraft took part in the second Rhön gliding competition in 1921. On August 14, 1921, the machine was brought to the starting point and Willy Leusch took a seat in the fuselage gondola. The extremely light aircraft was carried by the crew against the wind and released. Leusch gained about 80 m in height. In a curve, the springs could no longer generate enough restoring force and the aircraft fell to the ground with flapping outer wings in a spiral, killing Leusch. Despite the misfortune, this flight is considered to be the first " glider flight " in which a motorless aircraft exceeded the starting height of the take-off point.
Baden-Baden pride
Wenk did not give up his design principles and another aircraft was built. The "Baden-Baden Stolz" had a torsion-resistant wing that was supported by two short struts towards the fuselage gondola. Again the outer wing was angled and the trailing edge was pulled up strongly towards the wing tip. This time, however, the outer wing could not be swiveled and it was controlled either by control flaps or by twisting the wing. The few available recordings do not provide any information about the type of control. The machine never flew because it was damaged in transit.
Other planes
after Lange
- School glider "Hols der Teufel" (also with Ilo auxiliary motor)
- "Aero-President" (two-seater with two-stroke - boxer engine , participation in Rhon-light aircraft Competition 1924)
- "Bremen-Helgoland" (sliding monoplane with auxiliary engine, was registered for the Rhön light aircraft competition in 1924)
- "Deutscher Aar Frundsberg" (two-seat monoplane with auxiliary engine, registered for the Rhön light aircraft competition in 1924)
- "Schwärmer" (gliding decker with auxiliary engine, was registered for the Rhön light aircraft competition in 1924)
- "VEI" (sports two-seater, monoplane in mixed construction)
literature
- 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 , extensive type documentation with drawings and photos.
- Peter Riedel: Experienced Rhön History 1911–1926 Volume I “Start in the Wind”. Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart 1977, ISBN 3-87943-539-1
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Martin Simons: Segelflugzeuge - 1920 to 1945 , Eqip Werbung & Verlag GmbH, 2001 (2nd edition 2005), p. 13 f.
- ↑ Description of the Baden-Baden pride (accessed October 24, 2017)
- ^ Bruno Lange: Type Handbook of German Aviation Technology (Die deutsche Luftfahrt Volume 9) , Bernard & Graefe Verlag, 1986, p. 240 f.