Down Memory Lane - From the Log Books #23

[Guest TOSGcentral]

PRODUCTION GLASS – AND THOSE WHO MISSED THE BOAT.

 

 

Part 1.

 

 

Overview.

 

 

The advent of glass, the instant competition successes and new records, turned the gliding world alight! The move from one-off Super Ship to production happened almost concurrently and went for Standard Class as much as it did Open Class.

 

 

But the introduction of glass to production (viewed in hindsight) was actually in two and maybe three or more phases.

 

 

Initally there is no question that the BS1 and D36 Circe were the dominating gliders to influence design trends. The newly emerging factory of Glasflugel took the BS1 and produced a limited number of BS1b production aircraft. The D36 was taken over by Schleicher and became the ASW12 production model.

 

 

This is particularly reflected in the production of the Swiss Diamant that appeared in a number of wing spans. This glider emulated the BS1 and D36 in compromising pilot appointments (ie flat on your back flying and restricted approach aids) and popularity faded as other types came out that were more ‘conventional’ but had equal or more performance.

 

 

The other main German manufacturer, Scheibe, seemed to sit on the sidelines for a while and continued building and selling his wooden winged and tube steel fuselage established types.

 

 

At Schempp-Hirth Klaus Hoolighaus was already beavering away at the ‘next generation’ glass and stole a march on the competition by producing the ‘Open Cirrus’, then reducing size and redesigning into the Standard Cirrus, but then going the other way to produce the world beating Nimbus. All of these came into production very early indeed.

 

 

But other countries jumped on the glass bandwagon as well. Notable were the Swiss Elf series of almost hand built state of the art gliders. But these never reached the overall popularity as did the German factory production types.. Poland began dabbling and was to prove successful later on, but not in the early days. Finland did exceptionally well in design if not in sales.

 

 

Even the French got going early but little of their product was sold out of the country.

 

 

Other countries went a different way. The Italians made a bid but went exclusively for metal gliders and this was almost single handedly from the Caproni factory who built the world’s then highest performance two seater (the Calif A21 which they also produced with a jet engine. This was to support a range of 15, 17, 19 and 20+ metre single seaters and I personally saw the prototypes of these glider under construction at the factory).

 

 

In UK the main manufacturer (Slingsby) were also left on the beach and their sales were hit hard even though they had extreme woodwork production skills and capacity. Slingsby went on to basically build under license or take over designs that had promise. However, they may have bitten off more than they could chew as they continued in wood to an extent, got into tube steel, then into full metal aircraft, and then into license built glass.

 

 

Australia never really got into Glass at all – being also primarily dependent on wood construction skills – but were to attempt a come-back later with a two seater.

 

 

Looking back – a lot of fine gliders from several countries did not make it onto the world competiton stage and that impacted directly on their appeal and therefore any prospects of quantity production and export. The situation, as it always had been, was repeating itself with the dominant factories (with input for the Akafliegs) being able to produce semi-production super ships in the various classes, get the world’s best pilots to fly them in World and National competition, then back them with factory support. New sales were assured and they happened. Profits were then ploughed back into the next generation but (very wisely) some money was also ploughed back into production of next generation club machines. Such is how we have come by the present line up on gliding airfields.

 

 

Performance, even super performance, however was not the ultimate and automatic winning element, as the following little story will relate. There still, as there always will be, the ultimate human factor!

 

 

Interim Gliding Story.

 

 

I suppose it was 1969, but I cannot really remember and who cares? Her Majesty had kindly given me a month’s leave of absence from defence of the realm. The first two weeks were to attend the UK National Gliding competitions where I would be crewing and the second two were the Inter-Service Gliding Championships where I would be flying. So I was quite happy to be paid to go gliding!

 

 

That year the UK Nats were held at Husband’s Bosworth in the midlands. The RAF had fielded a strong team and intended to take the Comps lock stock and barrel – so we were all fired up to do just that! We had John Delafield, Ian Strachan, John Williamson and Andy Gough, which were a formidable line up. On the civilian side the main contender was Peter Scott (son of the Polar explorer) who was determined to win his first Nationals and had bought a BS1b to do so. You could not buy any better at the time.

 

 

Peter was already an accomplished soaring pilot so it was not a case of some wanna-be using money to buy a trophy. However money does help and he had awarded himself a month or so to get used to the BS1 full time. Some of this was done at Lasham, where the 6000’ of runway was used to experiment with the BS1’s tail braking chute. If you got it wrong then you may need a lot of 6000’ to stop a BS1 from approach speed even with full flap!

 

 

Anyway, John D was flying a wood SHK that the glass BS1 dwarfed in performance capabilities while Peter also had a new Air Data Computer to get the best out his machine. Towards the end of the competion they were nearly neck and neck with Peter just in front. John had only to complete the task to win the Nationals though.

 

 

On the last day the conditions were not good, rather weak in fact. Strangely Peter (who had been drawn to launch early and did not want to go) had a tail chute malfunction early on take-off and released. So he had to go to the back of the launch queue and when it came time for him to launch it was a breeze for the BS1, so Peter reached the destination (Debden) easily.

 

 

Peter left his ‘Man’ to look after the aircraft while he vanished for an important meeting in France convinced the championships were won by himself. I have a lot of admiration for his ‘Man’! He was the archtypical pom ‘Gentleman’s Gentleman’ and did it equally well on a gliding field. How he handled the BS1 by himself defies description – but he did!

 

 

But meantime back in the ‘John camp’ things were not going quite so well. John D had not wimped but had set off on the task under a XXXX poor sky. Eventually he had to land and did so at an ex RAF airfield that was not marked on the maps as ‘Restricted’.

 

 

We arrived with the trailer and things did get really cute what with guards and things. That is a separate story in itself but suffice to say that John manoeuvred the guards with their backs to the SHK while we the crew de-rigged it quietly without the usual screams of anguish.

 

 

Once we were done John let it be known that he was off now – have a nice day etc. The guards let it be known that he was free to go but the glider was going nowhere. John simply said “What Glider”? the guards span around to be confronted with just a bland enclosed trailer and no aircraft – so we left.

 

 

The trip back was a tad hair raising and John was threatening to give up flying etc etc because he did not think he would survive anyway but we did it in fine time and not too many traffic accidents.

 

 

John was dispatched to have a cup of tea and we re-rigged the SHK then bundled him in it and he was not convinced at all. In truth the sky looked really lousy. However there was no argument and we ordered the tug and despatched him.

 

 

He must have felt better once aloft again because he limped along until he contacted a really growing late arvo cumulus and went into cloud. The cu rapidly took John to 16,000’ and from there Debden was a cinch in a straight glide. So we got a new Nationals winner!

 

 

 

There was also the demonstration that solid and good quality flying (plus certainly a fortunate high cloud climb) could see a wooden 17 mtr glider beat what was then the worlds best 20 mtr flapped plastic fantastic with all the support that money can buy.

 

 

But that was really a ‘one off’ demonstration and glass was here to stay!

 

 

Affordable Production.

 

 

Somewhat further down the food chain the world was waiting to get their sticky mitts on all the goodies and it was not long coming.

 

 

The early ones were the German Bolkow aviation manufacturer who turned the Phoenix into the successful Phoebus in several wing spans. But the wing section was not good enough at high speed, there were no flaps and the cockpit was a bit ‘tight’ so the type faded quite soon.

 

 

Glasflugel became a new and major contender. They produced the flapped 15 mtr H301 Libelle but soon retro-engineered this into the cheaper and simpler H201 Standard Libelle. This became a great seller for them and put real performance in the hands of the great unwashed – ie most of us!

 

 

Equally Glasflugel tried an experiment. They attempted to emulate their BS1b venture and have a real production Super Ship. This was the 22 mtr 604 which was intended to compete with the Nimbus. But the aircraft was too big and too expensive and presumably a bit too demanding. However the 604’s main claim to fame was a downsized version which became the popular and very successful Kestrel 17 (and later Kestrel 19). These went very well indeed.

 

 

Scheicher went to glass early as well while continuing with wood and steel tube types for clubs. They produced the ASW17. Initially a large machine at 17 mtrs but soon to get a much larger wing, this was indeed a super ship and did incredibly well in the record breaking department. But it was not good enough and the Nimbus towered above all in the production glass stakes if only on a magic combination of pilot appeal, aesthetics and just downright performance across it’s massive speed range.

 

 

So Klaus Hoolighaus and Schemmp Hirth took an early lead with world beating glass sailplanes that became (initially) personified in the Nimbus and the Standard Cirrus.

 

 

We also saw the entry of initially smaller manufacturers come into the market. These specialised in single seat performance machines aimed primarily at competition.

 

 

Glaser-Dirks launched what was to be a long and successful series of DG sailplanes that did so well and yet remained affordable (if you pawned your grandmother, sent the wife out to work and the kids with her!).

 

 

Another new contender was Ralloden – Schneider’s LS series of high performance single seaters which also proved effective as well as popular.

 

 

A somewhat later comer was Grob in the early 1970s (destined to become a major glider manufacturer) who concentrated primarily on bringing ‘glass to clubs’.

 

 

Next time – Part 2 and what where they like to fly!

 

 

[Guest coaltrain]

Hi Tony,

 

Just wondering if any more of your excellent series on gliders might be forthcoming soon? I'm sure you have much else to command your attention, but just to let you know it has been a most enjoyable and educating read so far. . . .

 

Coaltrain