VGC News/Newsletters - Lakes Gliding Club

Careful and individual selection of highest quality materials.
Spruce and high quality plywood was used for the wooden
structure. All metal fittings were constructed from Duralumin
and the nuts and bolts wherever possible. For all structural
parts the individual strength of the mater,ial was tested and the
parts were individually designed for full usage of the material's
strenglh. DL1ring glueing the overflowing g;lue was immediately
removed to save weight! The airframe was covered
with a special lightweight silk.
1936 the Akaflieg Darmstadt built a second example "D 28b".
Due to some changes and additional equipment the empty
weight increased to 72 kg. The main design change was the
division of the wings trailing edge flap into an inboard flap and
an outboard aileron. Also with this configuration for camber
control ihe ai'leroRs could be moved together wj,th the inboard
flap. This )'Jlane became famous especially with a flight from
north to south across the Alps with Hans Osafln at the controls.
He started at Salzburg and landed after 240 km near Udine.
During the 1937 Rhon-Compet1ition the D 28b was flown by
Hans Osalln; he finished with sixth place. Bernhard Flinsch
piloted the D 28b during the 1938 Rhon-Competition and
leached 12 th place. ,ft'ying against a crowd of better and much
faster ships like DFS Reiher, DFS Weihe. Minimoa and
Condor H. His best achievement was a cross country flight of
365 km!
The 0 28b survived the war, was captured by American
troops and then shipped to USA. Sadly enough the plane was
not packed professionally and due to very rough sea it was
destroyed 01'1 the Atlanti{;.
Figure 4 : Construction ofRear Fuselage
Figure 6 : Demonstration ofthe Weight!
The maiden flight of the "Windspiel" took place on the 8 th
of July 1933. With the pilot Hans Fischer the D 28 immediately
joined the Rhon competition in 1933. The success was
only moderate; during the competition the plane was damaged
by a stone during landing.
On [6lh of June 1934 Hans Fischer achieved a world distance
record with 240 km from Darmstadt to Montmedy in
France. In the 1934 Rhon competition Hans Fischer with the
D 28 became winner in the distance class and third in the duration
class.
1935 saw the end of the D 28 prototype in an unusual accident.
In the vast grassfield of the Griesheim airport a small
sportsplane found no other landing spot than the D 28! During
Figure 7: Hans Osann in the D 28b preparing for crossing
the Alps (.Hsl. May 1937)
Due to happy circumstances the workshop drawings of the
D 28 survived the war, the complete set of drawings exists still
today in the archive of the Akaflieg. Not only the drawings
survived, also the young apprentice is still alive who made his
first experiences in building wooden aircraft structures during
the construction of the D 28. After his apprenticeship he
became the workshop master of the Akaflieg for many
decades. Heinz Hinz became famous in the German soaring
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