Fournier RF-3 motorglider and much much more…

Germany has a long history of building wooden gliders. German aircraft designers created many breakthrough innovations like the cantilever wing featuring a box-spar and a so called “torsion nose” leading edge construction which obviated the need for drag-enhancing support wires.

Between 1920 and 1940 wood glider design in Germany developed into an artform culminating in the development of the Horten VI glider with a 1:45 glide ratio, a figure that has never been surpassed by any wooden aircraft tot his day and the Messerschmitt 163 rocket propelled glider, the first aircraft to cross the 1000 and 1100 km/h boundaries. Until the late 1950’s, the most efficient and most beautiful gliders were made out of wood.

This art of wooden aircraft building and repair is being kept alive by a small group of dedicated individuals, some private, some professional.

Sascha Heuser has worked in his own shop in Potsdam [www.holzleicht-flugzeugbau.de] for 18 years and has now joined Quax Technik [www.quax-flieger.de], the repair facility of the Quax historical aircraft society at Bienenfarm Airfield west of Berlin. [www.flugplatz-bienenfarm.de]