Hans Jacobs was a German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 sailplane designer and pioneer. He had been taught sailplane design by Alexander Lippisch

Alexander Lippisch

Alexander Martin Lippisch was a German pioneer of aerodynamics. He made important contributions to the understanding of flying wings, delta wings and the ground effect. His most famous design is the Messerschmitt Me 163 rocket-powered interceptor.Lippisch was born in Munich, Kingdom of Bavaria...

, designer of many gliders during the 1920s and the 1930s. As the head of the Deutsche Forschungsanstalt für Segelflug

Deutsche Forschungsanstalt für Segelflug

The Deutsche Forschungsanstalt für Segelflug, or DFS was formed in 1933 to centralise all gliding activity in Germany...

(DFS - German Research Institute for Sailplane Flight) at Darmstadt

Darmstadt

Darmstadt is a city in the Bundesland of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Rhine Main Area.The sandy soils in the Darmstadt area, ill-suited for agriculture in times before industrial fertilisation, prevented any larger settlement from developing, until the city became the seat...

 in the years before World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, he was responsible for a number of highly successful designs, including the DFS Rhönsperber, DFS Rhönadler, DFS Habicht

DFS Habicht

-External links:**...

, DFS Weihe

DFS Weihe

|-See also:-External links:**...

, DFS Kranich

DFS Kranich

The DFS Kranich is a German glider. It was developed by Hans Jacobs for the Deutsche Forschungsanstalt für Segelflug .- History :Series production of the Kranich took place in the aircraft division of Karl Schweyer AG in Mannheim. The two-seater was in its version 2, the most widely built glider in...

, and the DFS 230

DFS 230

|-See also:-External links:* http://www.warbirdsresourcegroup.org/LRG/dfs230.html* http://www.luftarchiv.de/flugzeuge/dfs/dfs230.htm...

 assault glider.

The DFS Olympia Meise

DFS Olympia Meise

|-General characteristics:*Crew: one, pilot*Length: 7.27 m *Wingspan: 15.00 m *Height: m *Wing area: 15 m² *Aspect ratio: 15:1*Empty: 205 kg...

 was selected in 1939 as the glider for the 1940 Summer Olympics

1940 Summer Olympics

The anticipated 1940 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XII Olympiad and originally scheduled to be held from September 21 to October 6, 1940, in Tokyo, Japan, were cancelled due to the outbreak of World War II...

, but the games were cancelled. The design was taken up after the war and produced in large numbers in the UK by Elliotts of Newbury

Elliotts of Newbury

Elliotts of Newbury was a British company that became well known for manufacturing gliders-Beginnings and World War II:The company was founded by Samuel Elliott in 1870 as a joinery works as "Elliott’s Moulding and Joinery Company Ltd" It produced ammunition boxes during the First World War made by...

, in France by Nord Aviation

Nord Aviation

Nord-Aviation was a state-owned French aircraft manufacturer. It was created on October 1, 1954 upon the acquisition of SFECMAS by SNCAN...

, in Spain and in Czechoslovakia.

When the prohibition on German aviation under the Allied occupation ended in 1951, Jacobs designed and marketed an updated version of the Kranich.

He authored a seminal work on sailplane design, Werkstatt-Praxis für den Bau von Gleit- und Segelflugzeugen ("Workshop-Practice for the Construction of Gliders and Sailplanes").