un1or Martin Simons & John Watkins his is not so much the story of the Sperber Junior sailplane as of the Twoman for whom it was built and who was the only person to fly it. Hanna Reltsch was one of the most courageous and skilful pilots who ever lived but it is impossible to write about her or her aircraft without acknowledging the rest of her character. Indeed her flying exploits and nearly unbelievable bravery seem to have been driven by her deep internnl. passions. She will be remembered not only fo r her flying but for the role she played in Nazi Germany. She inspired admiration though rarely love among those who knew her. She herself seems always to have sought a hero to worship and became ever more deeply enmeshed in the politics of the time. I met her once in 1978 a few months Hirschberg. Under Wolf Hirth's tuition she Top - The Sperbe1· junio·r with its before her death. She was tiny, much tinier Wasscrkuppc ding :>ailplane pilot and hastily allocated 1936 than Thad imagined although I had known became an outstan contpetition 11Un·•bcr, 6:l . Even at the age wns chosen to go to Brazil with the selected already that she was small. ve Hanna Gennan demonstration team in 1934. She Above - Tile diminuti of 66 she was quite unusually intense in Reitsch in tlte tiny cockpit that was speech and gesture. When she spoke her test flew a seaplane version of the tnilored for Iter. whole person was involved in every word, Rhonadler sailplane and put on brilliant she quivered with perpetual excitement displays of glider aerobatics with Emst international soaring competitions in 1937 and enormous internal tension, expressing Udet and Peter Riedel at the 1936 Winter where she alone flew the very special and an almost ferocious energy. J began to Olympics above the frozen lake at expensive prototype Reiher, a big, heavy understand how she had come to be what Garmisch. She performed again over the and difficult sailplane to handle. she was. Berlin Olympic Stadium and later at the She was a Where does the Sperber Junior fit into Nineteen years old in 1931 she learned to Cleveland Air Races in the USA. of the German team for the this? fly gliders near her home town of member QFI 14 JULY 1995 . 1.. 1 DOCUMENTATION -· Hanna became a test pilot for the Deutsche Forschungsanstalt fiir Segelflug (DFS, German research institute for sailflying) where Hans Jacobs led the design team. Jacobs had worked on gliders and sailplanes since the late nineteen twenties under Alexandc.r Lippisch (who later designed the Me J 63). He assisted Lippisch with the famous Fafnir and several earlier designs such as Kronfeld's Wien and the Professor type of 1928. jacobs independently designed the very successful Rhonadler and l~honb ussard sailplanes which were in full production at Schleicher's faCtory by 1934. These were the first high performance sailplanes ever to go into large scale factory production. Previously sailplanes had been designed individually and it was rare for more than one or two to be bu Llt to a particu li!r pattem. In 1935 Jacobs' latest product was the Rh tSnsperber, a 15.3 metre span sailplane derived from the 14.3 m Bussard but with a gull wing mounted on the fuselage at shoulder height instead of on a pylon. The win g profiles were the same, Gottingen 535 tapering to a thin symmetrical tip and the flanges and plywood webs, were joined on J\ repl-ica. of tile Sperber Jw•ior co-ntrol the centre li ne of the aircraft with two large pam?l, probaEJly fro·m. the Wasserkuppe tail unit was only slightly altered. (The Museunz. only airworthy Rhonsperber existing now horizontal steel pins, the fuselage being attac!1ed by four smaller pins. has in fact a Bussard tailplane.) awkwardly at the point where this bend The Rhonsperber's extra metre of span The Rhonsperber was a very successful occurred. To move them more inboard and higher wing loading, 18.8 kg /sg m club sailplctne bu t Jacobs was aware of would have ca used difficulties when thev (3.8lbs/sq ft) as against 16_8 kg/sq m many deficiencies imposed by the were open. The turbulent airflow behinti' (3.44lb/sq ft), ensured it would perform requirement that it should fit such a wide them would strike the tailplane and. Glu.se better than the Bussard in cross country range of pilots. When Hanna Reitsch came unpleasant effects on control. To shift them flyi ng. It was, ra ther unusual for its time, it to work for the DFS Jacobs recognised that further out might have similar ill results had a fully enclosed cockpit with a an ordinary cockpit was far too big for for the ailerons. Tite spoil ers had to be teardrop shaped canopy. One reason for such a little ),rirl. She had to carry her own situated at the point where the wing this was the realisation that the pilot cushions about with her and lumps of curved but when closed must lie Hush with circling in a thermal with other sailplanes, ballast were often n ecess<~ry too to bring the surface. The plates had to be bent to must keep a good look out to avoid the centre of gravity to the right place. conform. This prevented them being collisions. In the 13ussard this was almost Yet even now there ·were still a few large simply hinged al ong their front edges like impossible because the wing leading edge men who could barely get into the cockpit the usu <~l sort of letter box paddle so Jacobs was. directly above the pilot's hcad and of any existing sailplane. jacobs therefore devised a new syr;tem which brought the there was no view into the turn at all when set about the design of two new types, the blades out on rotating arms dear of the the sailplane was correctly banked. The Sperber Senior for Ludwig Hofmann, a big wing and, as was shown in practice, more new type of canopy gave an excellent all man, and the Sperber Junior for Hanna for effective in operation than the simpler round field of view. whom he seemed to develop a fatherly hinged flaps. The fuselage of the Rhiinspcrber, like the affection. The two new sailplanes owed Jacobs took Hanna's measurements, Bussard, was necessarilv rather fat. Pilots their general layout, but not much more, to perhaps by the trick of sitting her against a sat upright, usually with a parachute too the Rhonsperbe.r_ wall and drawing a chalk line around her. and since the aircraft was intended for The Sperber junior wing retained the This established the fuselage cross section general club operations there must be Giittingen 535 wing profile with the usual -which was the smallest possible oval that enough room for large men. Cockpits were symmetrical tip section but the span was would contain her small frame. Rnther deep and wide. Smaller people were increased to 15.6 metres. This alone than the teardrop canopy Jacobs reverted accommodated with cushions and ensured a small advantage in performance to thc type of cockpit cover that had been trimming ballast if necessary. The for the new sailpla nc. The Rht'insperber used originally on the old Fafnir. From the aerodynamic penalty of the large cross wing had a constant chord centre section nose back to the wing root a carefully sectional area had. to be accepted- but for Hanna's aircraft Jacobs anticipated shaped hollm-v fairing just wide enough for The structure of the RhtSnsperber was later trends by tapering the wing in two the pilot's head was constructed with relat ively simple. There were no elaborate stages, more closely approximating the elliptical portholes to provide a view. The wing root fairings or costly materials. elliptical outline. ports in this case were partly enclosed by Locally available Baltic pine was used for The gull wing type of dihedral required transparent plastic but two large circular all the spars, longerons and rib booms with a bend. in the main spar- Jacobs felt. that the openings remained. To look sideways was Scandinavian birch plywood skins for the usual rather i! bmpt change at this point easy, to see directly ahead the pilot had to fuselage and the leading edge, torsion was detrimental to the airflow and le<1n out to one side slightly. resisting, D tubes of the flying surfaces. designed a more gradual curve, the timber Great care was taken to fair the wing The rear parts of the wings, tail surfaces being laminated in thin strips to form the root smoothly and the lines were adjusted and ailef·ons were fabric covered, as usual. bend. as far as possible to accommodate the The wing was in two pieces. The main The spoilers located behind the spar on fuselage to the generally curved flow spars, laminated with upper and lower the upper side of the wing came rather around the wing. Much more care than _. DOCUMENTATION 6512 i ~~~==~==~--r-~~-:~--~~u-._, -~~~ ~! ·-"' j~~·; " .......: . :: ··-····! :: 0 ....... 1--::~ 0 <.0 ·······J ~- - :: I.() ~ 1300 - T ·······J ~--····--:~•• ~ ;:: n : ... .. ·--:---·····1 :::::::: ~:::::>•. /: ............ 300 ······-1 ~-- I ....... ) ~===¥.==1 Root profile 300 ...... .1 1- ..... .1 ~----in----<11 Gottingen 535 300 ....... .1 t 300 ....... ! ! 300 --:1- 300 300 _L__ Mid profile Gottingen 535 0 Hanna Reitsch's Sperber Junior May 1937 Alpine crossing Tip profile Gottingen 409 Drawn by Martin Simons 1995 © QFl '14JULV.-1995 13 DOCUMENTATION usual was also taken with the tail unit and all the hinge line gaps were small to prevent air leakages.