Down Memory Lane - From the Log Books #10

[Guest TOSGcentral]

Pre War Single Seaters. (Part 1).

 

In my eyes, and those of many others, the years of the 1930s saw some of the most beautiful engineless aircraft ever built. These were the years when the glider evolved into the sailplane, thermal soaring was discovered and the gliding world began quitting the hill soaring slopes.

 

Thermals enabled soaring from the flat sites and were soon locked to cumulus clouds. Almost instantly it was realised that if you could get high enough under one cumulus then you could reach the next – and so the next thermal. Cross country soaring had begun! Also discovered was that thermals grew stronger once in cloud – so cloud flying became important, not just for height alone but to enable much longer straight glides and the consequent time saving.

 

Design pressure changed from low speed and low sink rate types that could maximise hill lift into the search for better glide angles and into wind penetration in order to move about. The sailplanes that emerged were modelled on the large soaring birds many having superbly graceful gull wing shapes and complex shaped fuselages crafted in moulded plywood to reduce drag.

 

Gliding fields sprang up everywhere, making gliding accessible to a huge and eager public utilising the new powerful winch launching system as well as aerotow. Manufacturers emerged and gliders began being mass produced to meet demand. Those were the days where the original blue prints for the current gliding movement structure came from.

 

As in any time period there were a range of types and purposes. The cutting edge machines were usually single examples, often custom built for individual owners. Successful types that could be economically produced vis a vis the market demand may have seen limited production runs and a few types were built in large numbers. But equally there was the basic training requirement and cheaper gliders that more people could afford to get into via the gliding clubs that started up.

 

So we have a type range that stretches from the absolute basic to massive 30 metre machines designed to keep pushing the envelope.

 

I want to initially do a round-up of general design features and then we will take a look at what some of them were like to fly, plus passing tales about them.

 

The big gull wings (especially the heavily cranked ones) afforded massive stability in roll. Having flown a few I can attest to that. This was important for cloud flying and if a good, steady circling flight could be established well before cloud base then the cloud could be entered with no blind flying instruments and some spectacular climbs were achieved very early.

 

There were some spectacular consequences as well and this prompted the on-going push for speed limiting air brake systems so that if you lost it then it would probably still remain in one piece until you could see where you were going again.

 

These early types were maximised for performance and in consequence the cockpits were cramped and often uncomfortable. You usually sat bolt upright with poor seating or support comfort. Equally often your head was buried in the wing roots and visibility was poor.

 

Blown bubble hoods were not available so complicated arrangements were made such that the pilot frequently was encased in plywood up to the neck with a small windscreen in front. Other types had larger, faired in canopy arrangements with heaps of small Perspex panels that could follow the desired shape.

 

As the skies became increasingly crowded so the need for lookout became more pressing and designs began foreshadowing the shapes and cockpit canopies that would come.

 

An enduring feature was that most of the early types lacked a mainwheel and had a big main skid only. But even a light, skid-only, glider like the Grunau Baby could not be really moved on the ground effectively (or at all) when resting on it’s skid.

 

The solution was a double wheeled dolly that could be plugged into the main skid. The down-side to this was that you needed a beefy crew to lever the glider up onto it’s nose so that you could get the dolly underneath – and then again to get it off for launching. But at small and busy airstrips like where I did most of my Grunau flying you often did not have time for this as runways had to be cleared promptly. So we developed a technique where six guys would get three to a wing and use their upper backs and shoulders under the main spar, stand up and you could at least get a fast stagger out of the performance if you had to – and you definitely did not want to do it too frequently!

 

But for some of the monsters they were flying way back then this was impractical – especially the two seat Kranich that had to be turned around quickly in its training treadmill duties. So jettisonable dollies were invented that you released after take-off.

 

The single skid and no wheel gliders were in fact practical if you had a lot of soaring and a consequent low turn around. On the hill site catapult launch (bungy) you were off the ground instantly. A big winch could haul you off in a few yards. Aerotowing was a different matter and small tugs could not even move the larger skidded gliders!

 

The positive side is that skid only gliders stop damn fast when landed – even when going downhill!

 

Many of the few surviving ‘classic’ gliders have been converted to fixed main wheels so that they can be operated reasonably easily on the ground.

 

As this series is rumbling on a bit into increasing instalments, I want to expand a little so you get more of the flavour of what was happening.

 

Germany was the main catalyst but was closely followed by Austria, Poland and UK – all of whom began developing gliding industries that would become club mainstays.

 

Germany had a lot of support what with events that would lead to WW2. With the stimulus of the Akaflieg University divisions driving new gliding technology and a manufacturing base already emerging, the German military became highly interested. This was a great way of getting thousands of youngsters into the air as pilots using non strategic materials and very cheaply. The fact of life of large gliding operations also relied on teamwork and discipline. The future Luftwaffe built it’s future squadrons on the gliding fields – so there were lots of gliders!

 

When it all ground to a halt in 1945 the forces occupying Germany inherited what was left. I have a sad tale or two to tell about that later in this series but some of the ‘classics’ did survive.

 

In practical terms the most effective mover and shaker was the RAF. They had inherited airfields had bored ex-operational pilots who could be press-ganged into instructors, plus time off on the weekends. They also found gliders and could quickly cobble together ready made gliding clubs using principally Kranichs as trainers and Grunaus as single seaters. They also found some of the ‘classics’ and so used them as well. So began what would become the RAFGGA. (RAF Germany Gliding Association) and service clubs began to form.

 

An illuminating view of those ‘survivor’ days after the war can be seen by this glimpse of a competition line up of the 2nd TAF at Scharfoldendorf in 1954 (2nd TAF preceded RAFGGA). They were all pre war types although one (the Grunau 3 had been built after the war)

 

 

Minimoa 2

 

Wheihe 2

 

Miese 3

 

Grunau 2 5

 

Grunau 3 1

 

Mu17 1

 

Olympia 1 (this was a refined UK copy of the Meise)

 

 

In addition the class groupings for the competition included the Rhonsperber although one was not entered, obviously they must have been around. There was at least one Kranich also present although this was not competing.

 

 

Other information is that there were 9 2nd TAF post war gliding clubs that had 90 gliders under their charge. Very many were destroyed but this opportune channelling was vital as examples of all of the above types have come down to the present day and are still flying.

 

Damn it must have been rough in terms of standards! It certainly still was 15 years later when I got into it! But some of the ‘classics’ did survive and it was this organisation that not so much preserved them deliberately for what they were, but managed not to write some of them off so they did linger on!

 

The Primaries. These were the most basic gliders ever built and they were built in their thousands because they were so cheap. There were many different types of them but basically they all looked the same.

 

The ‘fuselage’ resembled half of a timber roof truss with a rudimentary tail unit on one end and a seat and main skid on the other. A very basic wing was high mounted and wire braced to stay there. You had a stick and rudder, straps if you were lucky, and that was your lot.

 

These were first flight, first solo, training devices and sort of progressively slipped you into controlling an aircraft. You started by increasingly longer ground slides – usually being dragged by a vehicle. This gave experience on keeping the wings level and steering with the rudder on the ground. The instructor generally was furiously pedalling a push bike alongside and yelling instructions through a loud hailer. Gliding was definitely a ‘fitness sport’!

 

When you could do this you were given sufficient speed to enable the glider to be lifted off and so started to learn about the elevator and pitch control. Perforce you also started learning about landings because there was nobody with you to do it for you! Flying time was counted in seconds rather than hours or minutes.

 

You scored your gliding A Certificate when you could take off, glide in a straight line and land without breaking anything.

 

You were then launched progressively higher until you could demonstrate your ability to turn both left and right and then land. This scored your B Gliding Certificate and you got to wear a badge with two gulls on it instead of one.

 

The C Certificate (five minutes soaring above your previous lowest point) was usually beyond the Primary gliders so you had to wait until you got into something hot like a Grunau!

 

As a small aside – a lot of senior German glider pilots indulged themselves in a bit of inverted snobbery. They would wear a tiny single gull A badge on their jacket lapels. But behind the lapel and out of sight was their actual Gold C and three Diamond badge. This could be easily flashed if anyone was silly enough to rise to the bait and begin treating them like a novice.

 

That was not nearly as bad as one UK pilot who generally worked abroad on high paying sub contract work. When he eventually got his three diamonds (he really was not very good so it took a long time and a lot of money) he had a huge badge of solid gold fashioned which was studded with three big real diamonds, and he was never seen not wearing it – I think he probably wore the thing in bed as well. The pity was that although the ornament was undoubtably costly. He had taken the fashioning very cheap and the thing looked terrible!

 

I never flew a Primary. The closest I got was at RAF Bicester and they had their’s out one day when I visited. They were doing circular autotows around the airfield perimeter track at five bob a time so I eagerly queued up for a go. Alas they wanted a Silver C to fly it and I (like so many others) was still short of the five hour requirement – that took a lot of getting in those days with what we were flying.

 

My early gliding days were constantly frustrated by not having the hours or badges to fly high performance and then also being precluded from old types for the same reasons as these were now starting to become protected. I did more flying and got over it, but missed out on a lot in consequence.

 

Next time we will start looking at some of the ‘big gull winged’ sailplanes.