LF-1 Zaunkoenig
Encyclopedia
The Brunswick LF-1 Zaunkönig was a STOL
single-seat light aircraft
designed in 1939 by Prof. Ing. Hermann Winter as a fool-proof aircraft for learner pilots to epxerience solo flight.
, Lower Saxony, Germany
.
Winter was a former engineer at Fieseler
which was famous for the Fi 156
. LF stands for Langsames Flugzeug, in English: "slow aircraft".
It was a parasol wing
monoplane with a high-set tailplane
.
The aircraft's wingspan
was 26 ft 5 in (8.05 m), its length 19 ft 11 in (6.07 m). Maximum take-off weight
was 776 lb (352 kg). Equipped with a Zündapp
Z9-92 delivering 50 hp, it needed an airstrip of 100 m (328.1 ft) long to operate. Using maximum flap, its stall speed was 50 km/h. Cruising speed was 53 mph (85 km/h).. Designed as a proof-of-concept for a 'fool-proof' training aircraft, the Zaunkönig was intended to be flown by novice pilots with only an hour's ground instruction, the hour being reduced to five-minutes to those who had flown sailplane
s. The result was an aircraft that was both unstallable
and unspinnable
.
The first prototype the LF-1 V1 was constructed in 1940 and made its first flight by Winter himself in December 1940. Test flights came to an end when, in November 1942, a part of the wing ruptured and the aircraft crashed. A second prototype, the V2 was built in 1943 and received the registration
D-YBAR. This example was tested for military applications. At a certain time it was even armed with a Panzerfaust
100.
D-YBAR was taken to the Royal Aircraft Establishment
(RAE) at Farnborough
for slow flying tests; given the British serial
VX190., where amongst others, it was flown by Eric "Winkle" Brown CO Aero Flight, the aircraft also being soloed by the then-head of the RAE Aerodynamics Section, Handel Davies, whose previous experience was as a pupil in a dual-control Miles Magister
, after a half hour of ground instruction. It was sold to a British private owner in June 1949 as G-ALUA, and then to the Experimental Flying Group and to the Ultra Light Aircraft Association, subsequently in 1974 to an Irish owner, being registered EI-AYU, returning to Germany, in 1976, as D-EBCQ. As of 2008, it was preserved in the Deutsches Museum
collection at Oberschleissheim near Munich.
Encouraged by the positive British reviews Prof. Ing. Hermann Winter decided to build a third LF-1. The construction started in 1954 and it was the first new aircraft in Germany after the war to receive a certificate by the Luftfahrt-Bundesamt (LBA) in Braunschweig
and the code D-EBAR. Winter envisioned the Zaunkönig as a People's Aircraft affordable for all (for a price of around DM 6,000). On 28 April 1957, the wartime Luftwaffe fighter ace Heinrich Bär
was conducting a routine flight check in the D-EBAR. Bär put the aircraft into a flat spin, the final manoeuvre in the test process at Braunschweig-Waggum. The aircraft spun down to 50 m (164 ft) then, unable to regain control, it crashed and Bär received fatal head injuries. The aircraft was damaged beyond repair and written off.
At the time a fourth LF-1 V4 was already under construction and it flew a few months after the fatal accident with the V3. It received its certificate in 1958 and the code D-ECER. This aircraft flew for some years in Germany until grounded after the death of Prof. Ing. Winter in 1968. It was restored in 1980 and flew until 1999 as D-EBCG and as of 2008 preserved in the collection of the Internationals Luftfahrtmuseum Manfred Pflumm near Villingen-Schwenningen
.
STOL
STOL is an acronym for short take-off and landing, a term used to describe aircraft with very short runway requirements.-Definitions:There is no one accepted definition of STOL and many different definitions have been used by different authorities and nations at various times and for a myriad of...
single-seat light aircraft
Aircraft
An aircraft is a vehicle that is able to fly by gaining support from the air, or, in general, the atmosphere of a planet. An aircraft counters the force of gravity by using either static lift or by using the dynamic lift of an airfoil, or in a few cases the downward thrust from jet engines.Although...
designed in 1939 by Prof. Ing. Hermann Winter as a fool-proof aircraft for learner pilots to epxerience solo flight.
Design and construction
The aircraft was designed by Prof. Dr.-Ing. Hermann Winter and his students of the Technical University of BrunswickTechnische Universität Braunschweig
The TU Braunschweig is the oldest University of Technology in Germany. It was founded in 1745 as Collegium Carolinum and is a member of TU9, an incorporated society of the most renowned and largest German Institutes of Technology. Today it has about 13,000 students, making it the third largest...
, Lower Saxony, Germany
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...
.
Winter was a former engineer at Fieseler
Fieseler
The Gerhard Fieseler Werke was a German aircraft manufacturer of the 1930s and 40s. The company is remembered mostly for its military aircraft built for the Luftwaffe during the Second World War.-History:...
which was famous for the Fi 156
Fieseler Fi 156
The Fieseler Fi 156 Storch was a small German liaison aircraft built by Fieseler before and during World War II, and production continued in other countries into the 1950s for the private market...
. LF stands for Langsames Flugzeug, in English: "slow aircraft".
It was a parasol wing
Parasol wing
A parasol wing monoplane is an aircraft design in which the wing is not mounted directly to the fuselage, but rather, the fuselage is supported beneath it by a set of struts, called cabane struts...
monoplane with a high-set tailplane
T-tail
thumb|right|Grob motor gliderA T-tail is an aircraft tail stabilizer configuration in which the horizontal surfaces are mounted to the top of the vertical stabilizer. Traditionally, the horizontal control surfaces are mounted to the fuselage at the base of the vertical stabilizer...
.
The aircraft's wingspan
Wingspan
The wingspan of an airplane or a bird, is the distance from one wingtip to the other wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777 has a wingspan of about ; and a Wandering Albatross caught in 1965 had a wingspan of , the official record for a living bird.The term wingspan, more technically extent, is...
was 26 ft 5 in (8.05 m), its length 19 ft 11 in (6.07 m). Maximum take-off weight
Maximum Take-Off Weight
The Maximum Takeoff Weight or Maximum Takeoff Mass of an aircraft is the maximum weight at which the pilot of the aircraft is allowed to attempt to take off, due to structural or other limits. The analogous term for rockets is Gross Lift-Off Mass, or GLOW...
was 776 lb (352 kg). Equipped with a Zündapp
Zündapp
Zündapp was a major German motorcycle manufacturer. The company was founded in 1917 in Nuremberg by Fritz Neumeyer, together with the Friedrich Krupp AG and the machine tool manufacturer Thiel under the name "Zünder- und Apparatebau G.m.b.H." as a producer of detonators...
Z9-92 delivering 50 hp, it needed an airstrip of 100 m (328.1 ft) long to operate. Using maximum flap, its stall speed was 50 km/h. Cruising speed was 53 mph (85 km/h).. Designed as a proof-of-concept for a 'fool-proof' training aircraft, the Zaunkönig was intended to be flown by novice pilots with only an hour's ground instruction, the hour being reduced to five-minutes to those who had flown sailplane
Glider (sailplane)
A glider or sailplane is a type of glider aircraft used in the sport of gliding. Some gliders, known as motor gliders are used for gliding and soaring as well, but have engines which can, in some cases, be used for take-off or for extending a flight...
s. The result was an aircraft that was both unstallable
Stall (flight)
In fluid dynamics, a stall is a reduction in the lift coefficient generated by a foil as angle of attack increases. This occurs when the critical angle of attack of the foil is exceeded...
and unspinnable
Spin (flight)
In aviation, a spin is an aggravated stall resulting in autorotation about the spin axis wherein the aircraft follows a corkscrew downward path. Spins can be entered intentionally or unintentionally, from any flight attitude and from practically any airspeed—all that is required is sufficient yaw...
.
The first prototype the LF-1 V1 was constructed in 1940 and made its first flight by Winter himself in December 1940. Test flights came to an end when, in November 1942, a part of the wing ruptured and the aircraft crashed. A second prototype, the V2 was built in 1943 and received the registration
Aircraft registration
An aircraft registration is a unique alphanumeric string that identifies a civil aircraft, in similar fashion to a licence plate on an automobile...
D-YBAR. This example was tested for military applications. At a certain time it was even armed with a Panzerfaust
Panzerfaust
The Panzerfaust was an inexpensive, recoilless German anti-tank weapon of World War II. It consisted of a small, disposable preloaded launch tube firing a high explosive anti-tank warhead, operated by a single soldier...
100.
Post-war history
The Zaunkönig registrationAircraft registration
An aircraft registration is a unique alphanumeric string that identifies a civil aircraft, in similar fashion to a licence plate on an automobile...
D-YBAR was taken to the Royal Aircraft Establishment
Royal Aircraft Establishment
The Royal Aircraft Establishment , was a British research establishment, known by several different names during its history, that eventually came under the aegis of the UK Ministry of Defence , before finally losing its identity in mergers with other institutions.The first site was at Farnborough...
(RAE) at Farnborough
Farnborough, Hampshire
-History:Name changes: Ferneberga ; Farnburghe, Farenberg ; Farnborowe, Fremborough, Fameborough .Tower Hill, Cove: There is substantial evidence...
for slow flying tests; given the British serial
United Kingdom military aircraft serials
In the United Kingdom to identify individual aircraft, all military aircraft are allocated and display a unique serial number. A unified serial number system, maintained by the Air Ministry , and its successor the Ministry of Defence , is used for aircraft operated by the Royal Air Force , Fleet...
VX190., where amongst others, it was flown by Eric "Winkle" Brown CO Aero Flight, the aircraft also being soloed by the then-head of the RAE Aerodynamics Section, Handel Davies, whose previous experience was as a pupil in a dual-control Miles Magister
Miles Magister
-See also:-References:NotesBibliography* Amos, Peter. Miles Aircraft = The early years. Tonbridge: Air-Britain, 2009. ISBN 978 0 85130 410 6...
, after a half hour of ground instruction. It was sold to a British private owner in June 1949 as G-ALUA, and then to the Experimental Flying Group and to the Ultra Light Aircraft Association, subsequently in 1974 to an Irish owner, being registered EI-AYU, returning to Germany, in 1976, as D-EBCQ. As of 2008, it was preserved in the Deutsches Museum
Deutsches Museum
The Deutsches Museum in Munich, Germany, is the world's largest museum of technology and science, with approximately 1.5 million visitors per year and about 28,000 exhibited objects from 50 fields of science and technology. The museum was founded on June 28, 1903, at a meeting of the Association...
collection at Oberschleissheim near Munich.
Encouraged by the positive British reviews Prof. Ing. Hermann Winter decided to build a third LF-1. The construction started in 1954 and it was the first new aircraft in Germany after the war to receive a certificate by the Luftfahrt-Bundesamt (LBA) in Braunschweig
Braunschweig
Braunschweig , is a city of 247,400 people, located in the federal-state of Lower Saxony, Germany. It is located north of the Harz mountains at the farthest navigable point of the Oker river, which connects to the North Sea via the rivers Aller and Weser....
and the code D-EBAR. Winter envisioned the Zaunkönig as a People's Aircraft affordable for all (for a price of around DM 6,000). On 28 April 1957, the wartime Luftwaffe fighter ace Heinrich Bär
Heinrich Bär
Oskar-Heinz "Pritzl" Bär was a German Luftwaffe flying ace who served throughout World War II in Europe. A flying ace or fighter ace is a military aviator credited with shooting down five or more enemy aircraft during aerial combat...
was conducting a routine flight check in the D-EBAR. Bär put the aircraft into a flat spin, the final manoeuvre in the test process at Braunschweig-Waggum. The aircraft spun down to 50 m (164 ft) then, unable to regain control, it crashed and Bär received fatal head injuries. The aircraft was damaged beyond repair and written off.
At the time a fourth LF-1 V4 was already under construction and it flew a few months after the fatal accident with the V3. It received its certificate in 1958 and the code D-ECER. This aircraft flew for some years in Germany until grounded after the death of Prof. Ing. Winter in 1968. It was restored in 1980 and flew until 1999 as D-EBCG and as of 2008 preserved in the collection of the Internationals Luftfahrtmuseum Manfred Pflumm near Villingen-Schwenningen
Villingen-Schwenningen
Villingen-Schwenningen is a city in the Schwarzwald-Baar district in southern Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It has 80,941 inhabitants .-History:...
.