Last Friday, after a long winter break, the fs35 finally took off again. Just as during its first flight, our little harpy impressed us with its stunning flight performance. This is the first time that the fs35 flew after its ferry flight from Schwäbisch Hall back in September and it is also the first time…
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Even though we still aren’t allowed to hang around our workshop, we’re still working intensively on our fs36 project. One section that had a lot of work put into it were the interface between strength verification and load calculation, along with the FEM model. These will be explained in more detail here. In the past…
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Last season, our G109 finally hit 3000 flying hours and thus, it requires a service life extension program. To this end, we started a crowdfunding campaign for the overhaul of our G109, during which we earned more than 3500€. We would like to heartily thank all those who donated. The G109 is getting a new…
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The fs25 is our oldest still flying prototype and of course, we wouldn’t forget about or old girl. This year, the fs25 is going to get a new coat of paint! To this end, we spent hours sanding off the old layers of paint. Since we found one or two damaged areas, we also took…
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This time around, we decided to mount detachable canards onto our Twin III. This would allow heavier pilots to spin the sailplane better, which in turn lets more pilots do spin practices on the Twin. Besides that we also did the usual winter maintenance work, and the plane got new brake pads and a new…
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Our newest project, the fs36, will be a fly-by-wire sailplane with Fowler flaps, an idea first attempted by the Akaflieg Stuttgart with the fs34 Albatross. Generally, sailplanes with a variable wing area are designed to achieve an advantage in thermalling by increasing their wing area, while during high speed flight, the flaps are raised, giving…
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Just last summer, Caroline, as part of her Bachelor thesis, ran some tests on a reference configuration of a wing-fuselage joint for the fs36. Said configuration didn’t use any specially designed joint. A CAD model for the joint with the flaps raised and lowered respectively were created. Nets were generated and both Euler and RANS…
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This year, we continued with flight tests on the fs33 with the new winglets as part of the Idaflieg Summer Meet in Stendal. Since these new winglets alter both the aerodynamics and mass of the wings, flutter tests at speeds above the maximum permissible airspeed of 280 km/h (174 mph) must be done, specifically up…
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Those who spend a lot of time together experience many things together, which unfortunately includes things that are rather unpleasant. These are among other things injuries at the workshop or, God forbid, during a flight accident. Both are things one doesn’t necessarily want to experience and thankfully, both are rare occurences, but it doesn’t hurt…
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It was an exciting moment for us; last Tuesday, the test pilot Ingmar Mayerbuch came to Schwäbisch Hall to perform the first high speed taxi tests on the fs35. Before running the tests, Mr. Mayerbuch took a closer look at the plane to make sure everything’s in top shape, inspecting the exterior, interior, and systems…
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