Udet U 11 Kondor

The U 11 " Condor " was the biggest aircraft in the Udet Flugzeugbau and the only metal aircraft of the company.

History

The only machine was built from 1924 on behalf of the South German Aero Lloyd, who wanted to fly over the Alps. The base set of Sporteindecker U 1 dar.

Structurally was the " Condor " is a four -engined high-wing monoplane with all-metal fuselage, wooden wings and an open cockpit for two. At the front there was an open stand for the navigator. Four individual Siemens & Halske - Sh.12 - radial engines were in pods under the wings. Motors driven via a slip joint and hollow drive shafts each have a propeller, which was disposed behind the trailing edge. This arrangement brought the inner propeller in dangerous proximity to the passenger window and the trunk door, which later had a fatal accident with a fitter result. The propeller tips were located in this arrangement only in 15 cm distance from the fuselage.

The machine with the serial number 243 was completed in December 1925 and taken from the building site Ramer village to the airport Munich district. The first flight took place on 19 January 1926, Harry Rother at the wheel instead, although the machine an extreme stern-heaviness showed rolling experiments in which demolitions among others, the tailwheel. To compensate for the stern-heaviness was enlarged tailplane and launched on 28 January 1926, a new test flight. After a few more changes, the machine was transferred on March 28, 1926 in Berlin, as the Aero Lloyd had become part of the German Luft Hansa and presented to the press in Tempelhof on 29 March. On April 8, she was admitted D- 828. 1927 should the German pilot school, the machine take over, however, refused to pay more than half the invoice amount for the machine. During the transfer there of used pilot made ( Rother had allegedly refused for financial reasons to fly ) a crash landing, which resulted in the loss of the machine. It proved to be a total of as too heavy or underpowered, a contemporary report describes the machine as a " bad design ". This was also due to the strictly limited by the victors engine aircraft performance to 400 hp. Thus, only one machine was built, they did not reach into the regular use. With the construction of the " Condor ", the company Udet dared to new technological ground. The failure of the type was the cost of construction of 850,000 Reichsmarks a reason for the demise of the company, whose founder Udet had left the company in the spring of 1925.

Whether the " Condor " was up to their depreciation in 1928, ever used officially in Luft Hansa, the first four -engine aircraft it was, is not occupied.

Specifications

Swell

• Report on the flight-testing, the German Museum / Munich