Some remarks about Akaflieg designs and Idaflieg-history

Abstract

In the early twenties of last century, students from several universities of technology throughout Germany organized themselves in so-called “Akademische Fliegergruppen” (academic flying groups) or, shortened, Akaflieg’s. Being flight enthusiasts, their main emphasis was (and still is) laid on improving soaring flight with respect to performance and safety of sailplanes. Consequently, during the past hundred years a variety of prototypes evolved from Akaflieg design activities – some can be regarded as milestones of sailplane development, others revealed major shortcomings of initially promising concepts. The first part of the paper gives a short overview on selected Akaflieg projects from 1922 until now. Furthermore, the “Interessengemeinschaft deutscher Akademischer Fliegergruppen” (Idaflieg, Interest group of German Academic Flying Groups), which is the, also self-organized, umbrella association of the Akaflieg’s, is presented. Within the frame of Idaflieg, design and construction workshops as well as flight test campaigns are conducted. The second part of the paper is dedicated to a short description of these student’s activities.