Zaschka muscle power aircraft

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Zaschka muscle power aircraft
Zaschka muscle power aircraft
Type: Experimental airplane
Design country:

GermanyGermany Germany

Manufacturer:

Engelbert Zaschka

First flight:

Flight attempts on July 11, 1934 in Berlin

Production time:

1934 - was never mass-produced

Number of pieces:

1

Senior engineer Engelbert Zaschka , Berlin 1927

The Zaschka human-powered aircraft ( engl. Zaschka human Aircraft Power ; Zaschka-HPA) was the attempt of a muscle-powered aircraft , which in 1934 by the German inventor and Oberingenieur Engelbert Zaschka constructed in Berlin and has been tested.

When planning his aircraft, Zaschka recognized that a large wing extension with a low wing loading is of decisive importance for a flight with muscle power . Therefore, he equipped his construction with a 20 meter long, narrow wing. Wire bracing over a central, vertical spar stabilized the wing against deformation. The frame of the Zaschka muscle power aircraft was made of steel tubes. At the start it should be accelerated to the nominal airspeed by up to four men .

During flight attempts on July 11, 1934, Engelbert Zaschka was able to achieve hovering flights of 20 meters in length by plane in Tempelhof without outside help. However, the aircraft was too heavy for long-term flight. The materials available at that time did not allow controlled endurance flight with muscle power. It was another 40 years before Paul McCready designed the Gossamer Condor, the first aircraft that could fly a horizontal figure eight with muscle power.

Picture gallery

  • Engelbert Zaschka with his invention, Berlin 1934

  • Zaschka muscle power aircraft with inventor, American newspaper report, 1934

TV documentaries

  • Big ideas - small flops: flashes of inspiration from A to Z. Documentation, Germany, 2016, 90 minutes, authors: Andreas Kölmel and Jürgen Vogt; Production: SWR TV , first broadcast: May 16, 2016; Documentation information ; Documentation excerpt "Zaschka": YouTube .

literature

  • Karl Ries: Air Force. The Moles (1919–1935). Publisher Dieter Hoffmann, Mainz 1970.
  • David Anthony Reay: The history of man-powered flight. Pergamon Press, Oxford / New York 1977, ISBN 0-08-021738-9 .
  • Morton Grosser: Gossamer Odyssey: The Triumph of Human-powered Flight. Zenith Press, 2004, ISBN 0-7603-2051-9 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Bruno Lange: The book of German aviation technology. Verlag Dieter Hoffmann, Mainz 1970, page 361.
  2. ^ Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum Washington: Zaschka Human-Power Aircraft (1934) .
  3. ↑ Cf. Der Deutsche Sportflieger, Leipzig. No. 10, Vol. 2, October, 1935.