Glasflügel
BS-1
 Photo: Robert Deering 7/21/2018
Frontiers of Flight Museum
Love Field (DAL)
Dallas, Texas

Glasflügel BS-1

The BS-1 was considered one of the first soaring “super ships” and during the mid 1960’s it was one of the most respected high-performance sailplanes in the world. The first BS-1 was designed and built in 1962 by Bjorn Stender.  The following year, Mr. Stender was killed during a test flight accident and in 1963 the Glasflügel Company took over the project and manufactured the production version.

A total of 18 BS-1’s were produced and this example was the ninth one built. Pilots flying a BS-1 established a number of records. In 1967, Alfred Rohm of West Germany flew a BS-1 to a world 300 km (186 mi) speed record of 135.3 km/h (84 mph). Terry Thys of San Leandro, CA flew a BS-1 on a 917 km (570 mi) flight in 1970. At that time, it was the third-longest soaring flight ever made.

Our example is on loan from the History of Aviation Collection at UTD. It was originally donated to UTD in 1972 by Alvin H. Parker of Odessa, Texas who was a world recognized distance soaring champion.

Source: Frontiers of Flight Museum

Glasflügel

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.

The following glider types were manufactured by Glasflügel:

The projected Glasflügel 701 and 704 side-by-side two-seaters did not materialize due to the demise of the company.

Source: Wikipedia