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M.Simons The World's Vintage Sailplanes 1908-45
THE KONSUL
Theoretical work showed that for minimum rate of sink, a glider needed its wing area distributed over as great a span as possible: long, narrow wings were required, rather than broad, short ones, even though the structural difficulties multiplied rapidly with every extra metre of wingspan. Almost nothing was known about large-span monoplanes in an era dominated entirely by strut and wire-braced biplane powered aircraft. When they designed the Konsul, the Darmstadt students swept aside all doubts. The wing span was 18.7 metres with an aspect ratio of 17. The cantilever wing was built in three parts, with the tips attached by a method devised by Junkers. The 8 metre centre section mainspar was a box in cross section, the tip spars were 'I'-sectioned, and they slid into a metal sleeve on the end of the inner spars, locked in place by a horizontal steel pin passing through. There was a light false spar to carry the aileron hinges and to stiffen the ribs of the inner panels. The joint in this member was a ball and socket bolt. After rigging the wing, the gap at the junction was closed by a simple plywood strip.
The ailerons were very large and broadened toward the tip. They were geared differentially, so that the outer aileron in a turn drooped only slightly whilst the inner one was raised more. This reduced aileron drag which acts against the turn. Ailerons and rudder were also linked so that the rudder would always assist the ailerons. Like them, the rudder was enormous. At a later stage the ailerons were reduced in size.
The aerofoil section was Goettingen 535. Wind tunnel tests showed it had an excellent performance at low speeds and high angles of attack, and it became one of the most popular profiles from this time on for fifteen years or so.
The wing was mounted directly on top of the fuselage with three bolts to the main vertical frames. The fuselage itself was a plywood shell with the minimum of internal stiffening. It had a lozenge or almond-shaped cross section, the pilot sitting upright just ahead of the wing. The Konsul was probably one of the first sailplanes to be fitted with instruments of any kind, an altimeter and an airspeed indicator, but sensitive variometers did not exist and a pilot could judge his success in soaring only by looking at the hill slopes nearby and watching the slight movements of the altimeter. Many earlier gliders had possessed a fairly elaborate undercarriage. The Konsul, by contrast, relied on a simple central wooden skid and thus adopted the characteristic ‘wing down’ attitude of all sailplanes ever since, when grounded. The tailplane was of generous span and huge elevators matched the rudder for area.
At the Rhoen in 1923, Botsch, one of the young designers, achieved a new distance record of 18.7 kilometres. In 1925 the Rhoen Competition took place as usual in August. A team came from the USSR, bringing their own sailplanes, but they did not have much success in the competition. A new pilot flew the Konsul, Johannes Nehring. He won the Wasserkuppe distance prize and made the best gain of height. Later in the year there was a national gliding competition in the Crimea, in the far south of the USSR. At the Wasserkuppe the Russians had extended an invitation which the Germans were delighted to accept. They took along several of their best sailplanes. Bubi (Kid) Nehring, as he was nicknamed, achieved a new world record of 24.4 km.
Back in Germany the Konsul continued in use for two more years until it was completely smashed in a bad landing when flown by a new pilot. The lessons it had taught the designers had by then been well understood. For the next few years virtually every new advanced sailplane that appeared could be described accurately as an improved Konsul type. Some, however, were not as good. In one leap, three years after the first gliding contest, the Darmstadt student group had achieved a plateau in sailplane development.
Technical data:
Konsul: Span, 18.70 metres. Wing area 21.00 sq m. Aspect ratio 16.66. Empty weight, 185 kg. Flying weight, 270 kg. Wing loading, 9.10 kg/sq m. Aerofoil, Goettingen 535. Best glide ratio. 1: 21.4.
Описание:
- M.Simons The World's Vintage Sailplanes 1908-45
- Flight, January 1924
LIGHT ‘PLANE AND GLIDER NOTES
Фотографии
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Flight 1924-09 / Flight
FROM THE RHON MEETING: The Darmstadt "Konsul" making a landing on a predetermined spot. It was on this machine that Botsch flew 19 kilometres last year. Note the extremely high aspect ratio.
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Flight 1924-09 / Flight
The "Roemryke Berge" of the Lower Rhenish Aero Society starting for a flight. This photograph shows admirably the nature of the country in the Rhon.
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GL / M.Simons - The World's Vintage Sailplanes 1908-45 /Kookaburra/
The Konsul in flight after the modification to the ailerons.
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GL / M.Simons - The World's Vintage Sailplanes 1908-45 /Kookaburra/
Botsch, one of the student designers and a record-breaking pilot of 1923, in the cockpit of the Konsul at the Wasserkuppe as contest officials take notes. The projection of the pilot’s head above the wing leading edge was one of the few aerodynamic defects of the Konsul. It was important in the early years of soaring for the pilot to feel the air on his face. There was no variometer and airspeed indicators designed for powered aircraft were not really sensitive enough for gliders. Another slight fault was the sharp angle under the wing root between the lower surface and the fuselage, which had a lozenge-shaped cross-section.
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Flight 1924-01 / Flight
Sketch of the Darmstadt "Konsul" in flight.
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Flight 1924-01 / Flight
Darmstadt "Konsul" Glider
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GL / M.Simons - The World's Vintage Sailplanes 1908-45 /Kookaburra/
Darmstadt D-9 Konsul
- Фотографии