Wien / Vienna

John's most recent glider project is a very famous German glider called the Wien. It was also known as the Vienna (Wien in German). As with most of the models John builds these days it is to a scale of 1/2 giving a span of 9.6m and an weight of 38kg. Unusually the model has not being built from John's own plans this time but from a design of Rolf Fritschi. Only one previous model has been built from Rolf's design which was produced in 2011 by Marcus Frey.

Cutting files and the design were purchased from Rolf who is assisting with information regarding the construction of the model as no full detailled plans exist, just the shapes of the parts. Work started on the fuselage and immediately a design change was made to make the fuz 2 piece for ease of transportation. A stepped joint was designed to spread the load across the join. Due to the very long and thin shape of the fuz it is being built in a jig to keep it straight.

 The fuselage relies on the ply skin for strength and is of a very lightweight construction.

 A mixture of 0.6mm, 0.8mm and 1.0mm ply was used for the fueslage sheeting. The stepped joint on the fuselage can also be seen.

  Wing construction started with the fabrication of the box spars and mid span wing joiners. Once these were completed and aligned the wing ribs were threaded onto the spars before the wing was sheeted with a mixture of 0.6 and 0.8mm ply

Above is the ply sheeting tutorial that was produced during the construction of this glider

 Trial fit of the inner and outer wing panels

The cold and wet winter meant that the fit of the wings to the fuselage had to be done inside. Good job John has a big lounge and an understanding wife!

The Wien  fully assembled with C of G checks completed

through the winter with final finishing and covering and after the final inspection under the LMA over 20kg scheme the CAA exemption to test was granted at Christmas. The first test flights were completed in Jan 2016.

It is a very large aircraft