Farner HF Colibri 1 SL

Last updated
HF Colibri 1 SL
RoleSingle seat motor glider
National origin Switzerland
DesignerHans U. Farner
First flightc.1979
Number built1

The Farner HF Colibri 1 SL was an unusual canard motor glider with a unique control system, designed and built in Switzerland in the late 1970s. Only one was constructed; much modified during the 1980s, it was still flying in 1990.

Contents

Design and development

Hans U. Farner was an innovative Swiss aircraft designer whose footlaunched canard ultralight sailplane had briefly reached production in 1966. [1] In November 1974 he filed a patent for a novel control system, particularly suitable for canards. This suggested mounting the canard on a slender tube which slid snugly within a second long forward tube that, together with a pod containing an engine, pilot and bearing mainplanes, formed the fuselage. Extension of the canard-carrying tube by means of fore and aft control column movement increased the canard's moment arm and increased pitch. The angle of attack of the canard was automatically altered as this happened. Rotating the tube about its long axis by rudder pedal movement turned the canard away from the horizontal and caused yaw, removing the need for a vertical rudder. Wing mounted ailerons controlled roll in the usual way. [2]

The Farner HF Colibri 1 SL motor glider, designed, built and test flown by Hans Farner in the late 1970s embodied these ideas. It had a very high aspect ratio (31.7) wing with a constant chord centre section carrying dihedral. Outer panels, with anhedral, combined with the inner section to form a cantilever gull wing. These outer panels had straight taper on the leading edges only, and rotated as all-moving ailerons or "tiperons" for roll control. [3]

The wing was mounted on top of a narrow fuselage pod, with the pilot under a rear hinged canopy well forward of its leading edge. The Colibri was a twin engined motor glider, with two single cylinder two stroke McCulloch MC-101A, each of 10.1 kW (13.6 hp) driving a two blade pusher configuration propeller via reduction gear and a high positioned shaft, just below and a little way behind the trailing edge. Under the drive shaft the fuselage remained deep but tapered rearwards into two door like aerofoils with straight, vertical trailing edges that could be opened symmetrically outwards as an airbrake. Positioned well behind the centre of gravity, they closed together as the only fin. Forward of the cockpit the fuselage curved gently upwards into a tubular, straight, tapering, rising boom. The parallel chord, unswept, high aspect ratio canard, carried on its constant diameter tube in the manner described in the patent, providing lift and both yaw and pitch control. [3]

The first flight date is uncertain but the Colibri was complete by late 1979. [3] The written record post-1980 is sparse but photographs show it was still flying in 1990, when it appeared at a display in Belgium. [4] It had visited the UK in 1989, coming to the PFA meeting at Cranfield. [5] [6] During the 1980s it had undergone considerable modification to the novel control system, with high aspect ratio, swept fins on the wings first at the outer end of the centre section, just before the start of the rotating tiperons, [7] and then at the wing tips. [5] These images suggest that conventional flight control surfaces were added to both fore and aft wings as well as to the fins. The extensible fuselage also seems to have been abandoned by 1989.

Specifications

Data from Gliders and Sailplanes of the World [1]

General characteristics

Performance


Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Schneider ES-65</span> Type of aircraft

The Schneider ES-65 Platypus is a two-seater unflapped glider designed and built by Edmund Schneider Pty in Australia. A single prototype was built, which remains operational as of 2012.

The Aviafiber Canard 2FL was a one-person recreational aircraft of highly unusual design, designed and built in Switzerland during the late 1970s and early 1980s.

The Hick Merlin was a high performance small sailplane built in the United Kingdom in the mid-1930s. It was a wooden, single seat, parasol wing aircraft. Only one was built.

The Manuel Hawk was a homebuilt single-seat glider designed and constructed in the UK around 1970. Only one example was flown.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Akaflieg Darmstadt D-9 Konsul</span> German single-seat glider, 1923

The Akaflieg Darmstadt D-9 Konsul, often shortened to Darmstadt D-9 Konsul, was a high performance, single seat, cantilever monoplane sailplane, designed and built by a German University student group in 1923 for hill soaring.

The Akaflieg Darmstadt D-30 Cirrus was an aerodynamically advanced single seat sailplane with a very high aspect ratio wing and a pod and boom fuselage. Built in Germany just before World War II, it was intended as a record breaker and duly set a new world out-and-return distance record in 1938.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Akaflieg Darmstadt D-36 Circe</span> German single-seat glider, 1964

The Akaflieg Darmstadt D-36 Circe is a single seat, high performance sailplane designed and built in Germany in the mid-1960s, one of the early "glass ships". It was the winner at the German National Championships in 1964 and came second in the World Championships the following year.

The Akaflieg Braunschweig SB-11 is an experimental, single seat, variable geometry sailplane designed by aeronautical students in Germany. It won the 15 m span class at the World Gliding Championships of 1978 but its advances over the best, more conventional, opposition were not sufficient to lead to widespread imitation.

The Sunderland MOBA 2 was a single seat glider built in Australia in the 1970s. It was constructed from a mixture of metal, wood and synthetic material and had some unconventional features such as side-stick control, and a nosecone which rolled forward on rails for pilot access.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Siebert Sie-3</span> German single-seat standard class glider, 1968

The Siebert Sie-3 is a single-seat Standard class glider designed and produced in Germany in the 1960s for club use.

The CVV1 Pinguino was a single seat, high performance glider designed and built in Italy in the mid-1930s, the first of a series of gliders from the Milan Polytechnic. It did not go into production.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Schleicher Rhönbussard</span> German training glider, 1933

The Schleicher Rhönbussard, otherwise known as the DFS Rhönbussard was intended as an intermediate glider trainer which could also fly competitively. It was designed by Hans Jacobs in Germany in the early 1930s. More than 200 were built.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">CVT2 Veltro</span> Type of aircraft

The CVT2 Veltro was an Italian competition glider built in the mid-1950s. Its advanced design incorporated a laminar flow wing, T-tail, retracting undercarriage and a reclining seat to reduce parasitic drag.

The Teichfuss Cicogna was an Italian tailless single-seat motor glider designed by Luigi Teichfuss and flown in 1936.

The Scheibe SF-30 Club-Spatz is a 15 m class single seat sailplane built in Germany in the 1970s and intended for club use.

The Kortenbach & Rauh Kora 1 was an unusual twin boom, pusher configuration motor glider, designed and built in Germany in the 1970s and intended as a training aircraft.

The VFW-Fokker FK-3 is a single seat competition glider, built in Germany in the late 1960s. It had success at the Italian and Austrian national contests of 1968, resulting in a short production run the following year.

The IIL IS-9 was a low powered, experimental pod and boom style motor glider, designed and built in Romania in the late 1950s.

The Merville SM.31 is a French high performance glider with a laminar flow wing, first flown in 1960. Only one was built.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oberlerchner Mg 19</span> Type of aircraft

The Oberlerchner Mg 19 Steinadler is an Erwin Musger designed two seat tandem trainer glider built in Austria and first flown in 1951. Several examples of this successful aircraft, which competed in the two seat class at two World Gliding Championships in the 1950s, were still flying in 2000.

References

  1. 1 2 Hardy, Michael (1982). Gliders & Sailplanes of the World. London: Ian Allan Ltd. pp. 151–2. ISBN   0-7110-1152-4.
  2. ↑ "Farner's patent" . Retrieved 2 September 2013.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Taylor, John W. R. (1981). Jane's All the World's Aircraft 1981-1982. London: Jane's Information Group. pp. 575, 598–9. ISBN   0710607059.
  4. ↑ "Colibri at Keiheuval, 1990". 28 May 2011. Retrieved 3 September 2013.
  5. 1 2 George Trussell. "Colibri with tip fins, 1988 & 1989" . Retrieved 3 September 2013.
  6. ↑ "PFA meeting, Cranfield". Air Britain News: 411. August 1989.
  7. ↑ "Colibri with inset fins" . Retrieved 3 September 2013.[ permanent dead link ]
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.