When Carol and I visited Schleichers in 1988 they assigned a friendly
bloke who gave us the tour of the what appeared to be a Bismarckian
era building of unknown original purpose. One passageway had the
molds for the ASH25 inner panel spars in it and I fully expected to
see some folks working on wooden tailplanes for the Messerschmitt
109 on a Third Reich contract that someone forgot was no longer in
force. Seeing them lay up the kevlar wing skins for an ASW 24 while
the fog rolled in the open windows was interesting too. What was that
about less than 50% RH?
I'm not surprised about the manual typewriter. Somewhere on the
Schleicher website they have a bit about how proud they are of their
handbuilt gliders. Hand building is what every manufacturer on the
planet is trying to avoid except in the German glider industry it seems.
I do believe though that for the wings at least most have gone to CNC
aluminium molds. The Discus 1 used concrete I think. We weren't
allowed to see the molds for that in 1988 although Eberhard Schott
was very proud of the accuracy and stability. Apparently there was
only a 1mm line of un gel coated skin there. He said it would be
better to just paint that line than put heaps of gel coat and sand
smooth as you would lose the contour.
Mike
At 06:25 AM 12/14/2016, you wrote:
>>Not only save weight but the wings wouldn't shrink, warp or
develop waviness.
Using pre pregs in the fuselage would save non lifting parts weight
and save even more wing weight.
Agreed. The German certified glider industry is not innovative these
days. All the fuss about electric gliders is only possible because
most glider pilots don't look to anywhere other than 3 factories in
Germany.
Their construction methods have not changed in 50 years. It's
staggering to see a worker with a jam jar fully of poxy bog and a pop
stick about to join a wing. The last place I saw a working manual
typewriter in use was Schleichers, about 6 years ago.
Of course, a little investment in ATL machines and proper moulds would
help. I can't understand why yacht mast makers and boat builders can
mill a mould from solid alu for a single boat while glider
manufacturers stay with low-temp resin moulds which are reused for a
decade or more.
Maybe we're not paying enough? Though I believe the problem is almost
entirely certification.
D
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