Down Memory Lane - From the Log Books #13

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(Pre War Single Seaters. Part 4)

 

 

Yeah, well! This is getting like eating nuts – the more you have the more you want and I am writing the damn stuff! No matter – let us progress, but I have little hopes of this one being short either!

 

 

Certainly Germany led the way in terms of volume production of individual types and series production types but the rest of the world were not standing on their hands either. A whole smorgasboard of graceful gull winged gliders dominated the 1930s.

 

 

In UK cutting edge production continued with probably the most notorious being the King Kite of which only a handful were made – primarily for a World Comps. I know little of the King Kite other than it had a reputation for savage spinning and none of them survived for very long.

 

 

At a more placid level the Slingsby Kirby Gull 1 probably takes pride of place. This was a graceful, elegantly gull winged glider of a bit over 15 metres wing span with single lift struts either side. The one I flew had additional history to it. It was the first glider to cross the English Channel.

 

 

But by the time I flew it the machine had been sensibly and well modified with a fixed mainwheel but, alas, lacked the original multi faceted canopy and consequently the overall lines to stamp it to what it really was.

 

 

Gull 1. At about the time that I am talking of there were three Gull 1s left. One was in Australia and had done stirling work for promoting Australian Gliding and the power of Australian soaring conditions. I believe that one is in a museum and that is terrible – it should be renovated and returned to the air where it belongs.

 

 

A second was still being operated by the RAF gliding and soaring association at one of their clubs. The guy who wrote it off was the guy who did most of my basic flying training. He had gone back to UK for a visit and so his own previous club. He loved spinning the Gull and they span with great enthusiasm! So he span it off an 1100’ winch launch and it went all the way to the ground! It was beyond repair and Terry had a broken leg and mangled back!

 

 

I will not go into the stories of Terry on his crutches and plaster cast – they were ribald enough and involved some of the lower spots of Cologne night life as well as some illegal flying, but it did take me some time to find out what had happened.

 

 

It cost me as lot of Heineken beers to get Terry to fess up a few months later. As his students we were appalled! Instructors walked on water and could do no wrong so how had this happened?

 

 

Very simply! Terry was doing a lot of low level spinning in easy trainers – the Gull had been different and he had not flown it for a long while.

 

 

He had initiated the spin at the top of the launch quiet deliberately – that was what he was there to do. The Gull goes in very promptly and very steeply – not like a trainer! Terry confessed to becoming overwhelmed by it and while he got full rudder on, he also held full back stick. The Gull requires full spin recovery so continued in a full spin right to the ground! That was the end of the Gull and left just the one.

 

 

The 3rd Gull was the one I flew. A bit modified but the genuine article! The glider was not terribly roomy or comfortable – but I was getting used to that by now in these early birds.

 

 

Naturally there is the slight background jitters of the sheer history and rarity of what you have been entrusted with – but once you have your foot firmly on that and just go for a fly there simply are not any problems.

 

 

The take off and aerotow were quite normal and no drama. General flying was easy – smooth controls reasonably well harmonised and the machine was light but very stable. The stall was quite straightforward and no drama there. I did not spin it. There were no thermals and I did not want to waste precious height on a spin – rather I wanted to maximise my flight time. Approach and landing were quite normal.

 

 

Overall the Gull 1 was a remarkable glider for what it was but quite unremarkable to actually fly – but I would not have missed it for quids!

 

 

Gull 2.

 

 

I have included this because, although a two seater, it is a significant aircraft in the famous Gull family.

 

 

The Gull 2 was a massive (virtually 20 metre span) side by side two seater that looked like a Gull I on steroids along with the graceful gull wings. It had a three piece wing, plain flaps and even had a main wheel (at that size I suppose it really needed one!)

 

 

Building commenced immediately prior to the war and was completed in 1940. Only one was built. It was crashed and written off in the early 1950s but I heard that the wreck had been stored and a later attempt had been made to rebuild it. Whether that happened or not I do not know. It would have been a formidable task but what a thing to own and fly! On the other hand you would need a fair number of friends to handle it!

 

 

Gull 3.

 

 

This was intended as a redesign of the Gull 1 and the spars were beefed up to full cantilever and no lift struts. Only one was built and looked like the Gull 1 although the production version was intended to have what we now consider as a conventional canopy and nose arrangement.

 

 

The aircraft was crashed and written off after the war but a very extensive rebuild was done by the Hawkinge firm and the aircraft flew again (and I believe continues to do so) as the Hawkinge Kittiwake – but was popularly known as the “Cantilever Gullâ€.

 

 

Gull 4.

 

 

I will come to this in the ‘Post War Transitional Types’ but I am just mentioning it in passing as a record that there was such an animal. Otherwise things are going to become very confusing if I begin describing it’s purpose now.

 

 

Pause for Breath!

 

 

As a highly simplified round-up of the gliding world at the point of the outbreak of WW2 hostilities a platform was beginning to emerge that gave a structure to general club glider fleets and the corresponding support manufacturing base that was required.

 

 

Sure, there were a heap of types about, still dominated by the ‘Super Gull Winged hot ships’ but design trends were changing for smaller and simpler straight wing designs that still performed steadily better and better – and were cheaper to build and thus more affordable for clubs.

 

 

The steady pattern that emerged, and still is the basis for the majority of club’s fleets today, is as follows:

 

 

Basic Trainer. Usually a large machine with tandem seating predominating amongst types used.

 

 

First Single Seater. Often about 13 metre wing span and benign in habits and consequent required piloting skills.

 

 

Intermediate Single Seater. A bit more refined and larger. Generally aimed at Silver & Gold C badge ability. Again usually reasonably benign to fly.

 

 

High Performance Single Seater. Usually 17 metres span or larger. Aimed at Gold C and Diamond badges. This was a very varied area and clubs bought the best they could afford – often second hand ex-competition gliders that were no longer cutting edge but still of excellent performance.

 

 

High Performance Trainer. Larger and more affluent clubs may have these but they were just level variable according to the existing club fleet and of significantly different performance (and maybe systems) from the basic trainers. As an example when I was at Benalla the basic trainers were Kookaburras and the advanced trainer was a Blanik. Later other clubs may be using IS28s as basic and a Janus for advanced.

 

 

In later years another element was added and that was the motor glider trainer. It took until the early 1970s for effective trainers to emerge and that is a different part to this series that I will come to later on.

 

 

Back at the ranch in the late 1930s things were starting to shape up for clubs with the Kranich becoming a staple basic trainer backing (typically) Grunau Baby single seaters.

 

 

The higher levels of a potential club fleet were catered for by predominantly two types – the 15 metre Meise and the 18 metre Weihe as rapidly emerging volume production types. But these two types also set a blueprint for something else – International Soaring Competition Classes.

 

 

Weihe.

 

 

Another Hans Jacobs design, the Weihe (Kite, as in large soaring bird not something on a bit of string!) came out in 1938 and was specifically designed for affordable mass production but with an excellent soaring and cross country ability.

 

 

The design was clean and uncomplicated and was to stamp the general shape of so many glider types to follow it. Weihes soon began dominating competitions and setting world records – and continued doing so after the war.

 

 

Basically an increasing amount of ‘people in the street’ could afford to have a competitive sailplane while they could not afford to have a Rehier, Minimoa, Fafnir etc made for them.

 

 

I never flew an original but did fly the UK copy that was named the Sky – but more on that in a later part.

 

 

Meise.

 

 

This was one of the world’s turning point gliders with long felt ramifications in the sport.

 

 

The Meise was essentially a transistorized Weihe reduced in size and wing span to 15 metres. It was designed to meet a proposed single type class for the introduction of gliding into the Olympic Games. That did not happen because the world went to war but the design competition did happen and the Meise won it.

 

 

This was the first attempt to organise a single design competition and leave the outcome at pilot v’s pilot rather than design (and money) vs design. Various requirements were made on what the glider should be and these went on to become what would be the post-war Standard Class.

 

 

The Meise was a screaming success, plans were freely available and they were built all over the world. Among other things they became the staple intermediate level single seater for clubs.

 

 

Once again I never flew an actual Meise, but did have the opportunity to fly an original that did not even have a mainwheel, but I did not do so. I flew the UK Olympia version a bit and more on that later as well.

 

 

My one real chance at an original Meise came in Italy. I was at a small airfield (Varese) at the foot of the Italian Alps. I was there to evaluate and fly the prototype Caproni Calif A21 two seater courtesy of the Caproni factory who laid a lot on for me.

 

 

At the airfield were a couple of German youths and their Meise on the sort of touring gliding holiday that I loved so much – just hitch her on the back and see where you end up!

 

 

They could see why I was there and were dying to fly the A21. Who would not? It was the most advanced two seat glider in the world at the time. So I was courted. I had copious amounts of free beer pressed upon me in the evenings and was urged to fly their Meise! Hummmm!

 

 

It was not on for a couple of reasons! The big Calif had not finished her test flying and I should not have even been in it. There was no hope for a couple of youths in their ragged jeans and pre-war glider! Secondly, this again was one of my European forays prior to coming to Oz, our money had been transferred already and I just did not have enough Lire on me to pay for the aerotow and my last couple of nights accommodation. Count Caproni had been hospitality itself but he was not about to pay for my bed and personal flying!

 

 

Anyway I missed out but the guys did not. I had been given access to the hangar where the prototype was kept, to take more photos, make notes etc, so I took them in with me. They had a real good hour going over the machine, sitting in it, playing with the controls and were really chuffed. Next best thing to flying it!

 

 

Next Time.

 

 

Yeah well I have to really sort out the Grunaus and a few other odd types and then we can progress into the transition years of the single seater as modern gliding really began to shape up