M.Hardy. Gliders & Sailplanes of the world

Oberlerchner Mg 19

  The firm of Josef Oberlerchner Holzindustrie had become the foremost Austrian sailplane manufacturer, producing over 4,000 gliders and powered aircraft between 1941 and 1967, of which the Mg 19 tandem two-seater trainer ДальшеMore>>> and the Mg 23 high performance single-seater were the most important postwar types. Before the war Austria, like its more powerful neighbour Germany, had produced some notable sailplanes, in particular the Mg series designed by Ing Erwin Musger which culminated in the Mg 19 and Mg 23. The first of these was the gull-winged Mg 2 of 1930, a cantilever shoulder wing monoplane of 18m (59ft 0 1/2 ) span, followed in 1931 by the Mg 4, Austria's first high performance glider which made some notable long distance fights, and which was developed into the Mg 10. The two-seater Mg 9 was designed in 1935, and in this Musger himself set up an Austrian duration record of 8.09 hours in 1936. This was followed by a world duration record of 40 hours 51 minutes set up on 10 September 1938, also in an Mg 9; six months before Austria had been annexed by Nazi Germany under the Anschluss, and the last type to be produced before war broke out was the Mg 12 training glider. The Mg 19, which made its first flight in November 1951, is a development of the prewar Mg 9, of conventional wood and fabric construction and distinguished by a laminar flow gull wing in the low/mid-set position, of Gottingen 549/676 section. There are air brakes in the wing upper surfaces and the two pilots sit in tandem under a sideways-hinging cockpit canopy. The Mg 19 proved to be popular as a training sailplane and examples of the type competed in the 1954 and 1956 World Gliding Championships.


Data: Mg 19a
Span: 57 ft 9 in
Length: 26 ft 4 1/2 in
Height: 5 ft 6 in
Wing area: 226.1 sqft
Aspect ratio: 14.23
Empty weight: 657 lb
Max weight: 1,058 lb
Max speed: 112 mph
Min sinking speed: 2.1 ft/sec at 38.5 mph
Best glide ratio: 27.8:1 at 42 mph