M.Hardy. Gliders & Sailplanes of the world

Schneider ES 52 Kookaburra

  After the war Edmund Schneider, one of the pioneer prewar German sailplane designers and co-creator and manufacturer of the Grunau Baby trainer, was invited by the Gliding Federation of Australia to set up a sailplane ДальшеMore>>> factory in that country, and so he transferred his operations there, Edmund Schneider Pty Ltd being duly formed as a private venture at Parafield airport near Adelaide, South Australia. Its first design here was the Kangaroo two-seater, which first flew in 1953, and this was followed by an improved version of the Baby, the Grunau Baby 4, the Nymph and Kingfisher, and the ES 52 Kookaburra two-seater side-by-side trainer, which was used by most of the Australian gliding clubs and is semi-aerobatic. Of conventional wooden construction, the ES 52 Kookaburra first flew in prototype form on 20 June 1954, and four Mk Is, eleven Mk IIs
and eight Mk IIIs were built. The ES 52B Kookaburra IV, which first flew in 1959, featured an increased wing span of 48ft 9in, a nose wheel in place of the rubber-sprung wooden nose skid ahead of the monowheel, a brake for the monowheel and an enlarged cockpit. By early 1966 a total of 23 Mk IVs had been built, and production ceased when Schneider decided to build the Schleicher Ka 7 two-seater under licence. The Mk Ill's cantilever high-set one-piece wing is a single-spar wooden structure with a D-section plywood leading edge and fabric covering; there are wooden scissor-type air brakes above and below each wing, and the sealed-gap ailerons are fabric-covered. The fuselage is a plywood-covered semi-monocoque made up of wooden frames and stringers, and there is a non-retractable unsprung monowheel, without a brake on the Mks I-III, these versions having the nose skid and the Mk IV a nose wheel; all Marks have a tailskid. The tail unit is a fabric-covered wooden structure, with a trim tab in the port elevator. The one-piece Perspex canopy hinges rearwards to open, and the two pilots sit in slightly staggered side-by-side seats; there is also a window on each side under the leading edge wing root to improve visibility. Extra instrumentation can be fitted if the
customer so desires.


Data: ES 52 Mk lll
Span: 38 ft 5 in
Length: 25 ft 11 in
Height: 4 ft 6 1/2 in
Wing area: 161.5 sqft
Aspect ratio: 9.13
Empty weight: 484 lb
Max weight: 865 lb
Max speed: 136 mph (in smooth air)
Max aero-tow speed: 70 mph
Min sinking speed: 3.36 ft/sec at 45 mph
Best glide ratio: 20:1 at 50 mph



Schneider ES 59 Arrow

  This single-seat general purpose club sailplane was designed to replace the Grunau Baby 4 and the ES 57 Kingfisher built by Schneider, and was commissioned by the Gliding Federation of Australia. The prototype Arrow flew for the first time on 14 April 1962, and completed its airworthiness trials on 7 May that year. Small-scale production was put in hand, and 10 Arrows had been built by 1966, the latest production version being the ES 59 Series 2, which had a shorter swept fin and rudder than the initial production aircraft. The cantilever high-set plywood-covered wooden wing has 'bumpers' at the tips and a forward sweep of 3° at the spar; there are wooden scissor-type air brakes at the 45% chord line and flaps are not fitted, the wooden ailerons being ply-covered. The fuselage is plywood-covered semi-monocoque and the tail unit a ply-covered cantilever wooden structure. There is a non-retractable monowheel with a band brake, and a foam rubber-sprung nose skid forward of it which has a steel shoe; there is also a spring steel tailskid. The pilot sits under a sideways-opening Perspex canopy, and is provided with cushions and a sunshade; extra instrumentation can be installed if required.


Data: ES 59 Series 2
Span: 43 ft 5 in
Length: 22 ft 2 1/2 in
Height: 4 ft 7 in
Wing area: 118.3 sqft
Aspect ratio: 16.0
Empty weight: 375 lb
Max weight: 616 lb
Max speed: 148 mph
Max aero-tow speed: 80 mph
Min sinking speed: 2.7 ft/sec at 46 mph
Best glide ratio: 28:1 at 51 mph



Schneider ES 60B Super Arrow

  The ES 60B Super Arrow was developed from another Standard Class single-seater, the ES 60 Series 2 Boomerang, and the ES 59 Arrow; the Boomerang was designed in 1964 for competition flying, and the first of two prototypes made its first flight on 28 November 1964, followed by the second on 24 December that year. These were followed by six ES 60 Series 1s built in 1966, and 28 ES 60 Series 2s completed in 1967 and 1968, plus a few more built since then, this differing from the Series 1 in having the height of the plywood-covered fin reduced by 3in, and a lengthened sideways-opening Perspex cockpit canopy; later production Series 2s had the nose lengthened by 2 1/2 in, a larger monowheel and an adjustable seat back for the pilot. The Boomerang soon made its mark in contest flying, and for a time held all the Australian national speed records over 100km, 200km and 300km triangular closed circuits, at speeds of 54mph, 55mph and 59mph respectively. The Boomerang was succeeded by the ES 60B Super Arrow, also designed for competition flying, which first flew in prototype form on 22 September 1969 and which was awarded a C of A on 31 October that year. It was the same as the ES 60 Series 2 Boomerang but had the conventional tail unit of the ES 59 Arrow with an unswept, fixed tailplane mounted at the base of, and forward of the fin instead of the Boomerang's swept-back 'all flying' tailplane, the halves of which were mounted separately on the fin about one-third of the way up, being secured by automatic spring-loaded bayonet couplings. In both cases the tailplanes were cantilever wooden structures with plywood and fabric covering, that of the Boomerang having a trim tab that also acted as an anti-balance tab, the fin being ply-covered and the wooden rudder fabric-covered.
  Apart from their tailplanes, the two types are of the same wooden construction, with a cantilever high-set one-piece wing with a laminated beech spar at the 50% chord line, a moulded plastic leading edge and birch ply covering back to 60% chord; wing tip 'bumpers' are fitted. There are no flaps, but metal scissor-type air brakes with epoxy-bonded wooden flanges are fitted at 55% chord; the wooden ailerons are plywood-covered. The ply-covered semi-monocoque fuselage has glassfibre fairings, and the non-retractable monowheel has an expanding shoe brake; unlike the ES 59 Arrow, there is no nose skid, but there is a spring steel tailskid. The pilot sits under a sideways-opening jettisonable Perspex canopy, and has adjustable rudder pedals and seat back; the customer specifies what instruments are fitted, and oxygen and radio can also be carried.


Data: ES 60B Super Arrow
Span: 49 ft 2 1/2 in
Length: 23 ft 2 1/2 in
Height: 5 ft 0 in
Wing area: 138 sqft
Aspect ratio: 17.5
Empty weight: 488 lb
Max weight: 765 lb
Max speed: 140 mph (in smooth air)
Max aero-tow speed: 103 mph
Min sinking speed: 2.3 ft/sec at 47 mph
Best glide ratio: 30.7:1 at 53 mph