Schleicher ASW 20

The Schleicher ASW 20 is a single-seat glider in FRP construction for high performance gliding. A total of 905 ASW 20 were built from 1977 to 1986, of which 100 are under license by the French company Centrair. The Swede Göran Ax won the 1981 World Championship in Paderborn with a ASW 20, as well as numerous second and third places were won with her. There were five different versions, their gliding index is 110-112.

History

1977 a new competition category has been introduced by the FAI, the so-called " 15 - m- class," which purported only limit a span of no more than 15 m. The Schleicher ASW 20 is the first aircraft of the company Alexander Schleicher, which was designed specifically for this class. Later, caused by small changes in the wing profile and a higher Wasserballastzuladung the versions B and C and additionally attachable outer wings, which increase the span to 16.6 m, the versions of BL and CL. Furthermore, the maximum deflection of the flaps was reduced down from the original 55 ° to 40 °.

Construction

Gerhard Waibel constructed the Schleicher ASW 20 ( W Waibel ) in Central ceiling design with flaps, water ballast tanks and leaving up spoilers. The cockpit is designed for maximum passive safety in the event of an accident, it takes a lot of energy and thus protects the pilot. The aircraft is built of fiber composite materials, there are glass - carbon and aramid fibers are used.

And thus secure field landings on short fields - - By the strong whipping in the landing position down flaps and the additional spoilers slow and steep approaches are possible.

For the body of the already proven hull of the Schleicher ASW 19 was adopted for reasons of cost, which was slightly modified for the flight controls the flaps. The T-tail has a fixed horizontal stabilizer, the rudder is automatically connected when mounted in later series and has a spring trim.

The chassis consists of a wheel, which is manually retractable via a lever on the left side of the cockpit. When the brake is a drum brake that was changed in later versions in a hydraulic disc brake. Originally, the brake is operated by a lever on the control stick and later via a coupling of the airbrake handle to the brake. The tail unit is provided with a tail skid rubber or a non- retractable tail wheel.

Jet engine as a retrofit kit

For the ASW 20 a retrofit kit for a homecoming assistance in the form of a fold- out of the fuselage jet engine was developed. Instead of the previously provided conventional internal combustion engine with a propeller used in this case, about 12 kg jet engine as the drive, to generate sufficient thrust for climb, for example, a separate start-up or to reduce an outer land risk. The engine has a maximum range of about 240 km. The first prototype ASW 20 CL -J ( J is for Jet Engine ) launched on 21 May 2006, since the end of 2009, the model is ready to go and is in flight testing. A einstrahliges model was presented to a broad public for the first time at the ILA 2010 in Berlin.

Specifications

The ASW 20 C and CL are different from the B and BL only by a max. Take-off mass of 454 kg ( 380 kg in the CL), and thus lower wing loading of 43 kg / m² (34,5 kg / m²) and a top speed of 265 km / h ( 250 km / h in the CL)