HISTORY
The firm Glasflügel (German: glass
wings) was
founded by Eugen Hänle in
1962 and was located in Schlattstall,
south of Kirchheim
unter Teck. It was the first
firm to manufacture a glass-fibre
sailplane in large numbers.
It was also responsible for
a large number of
innovations in sailplane
design and technology: quick
assembly systems for wings
and tailplane, automatic
control connections,
trailing edge airbrake-flap combinations,
hinged instrument panels,
the parallelogram control
stick and automatic trimming
are some innovations
introduced by Glasflügel and
later adopted by other
manufacturers. Some of these
are standard features in
nearly all gliders produced
today.
Glasflügel encountered
financial difficulties in
the 1970s which led to a
co-operation with the firm Schempp-Hirth starting
from May 1975. The death of
Eugen Hänle in a flight
accident on September 21 of
the same year further
aggravated the company's
position, and after further
changes in ownership in
1979, it was finally
dissolved in 1982.
Source:
Wikipedia
|