Under a perfect cold and snowy sky, the Schempp-Hirth team performed the maiden flight of the Ventus E!
Under a perfect cold and snowy sky, the Schempp-Hirth team performed the maiden flight of the Ventus E electro self launcher Sport fuselage on the Hahnweide airfield with pilot Andreas Lutz in the cockpit.
A first flight was made during the late morning by aerotow. After release, engine was tested successfully at different power levels until full throttle setting.
The early afternoon was then invested on checking the various data recorded during this first flight and discuss the next steps. Eventually all green lights went together to make a self-launch on the same day, late afternoon, with improving weather conditions.
Andreas Lutz, manager engineer of the Ventus E project, performed the first take off: "all went very satisfying regarding the engine operations and it was pleasantly smooth in the cockpit (...) I was in the above 4 m/s average climb rate during these flights at full power setting. The only issue I encountered was coming from engine doors and we are now checking all recorded data to fix this. (with a big smile) I'm simply happy!"
Wolfgang Janowitsch and Tilo Holighaus participated to this special and friendly day. As ground witnesses, they particularly noticed the powerful and very smooth acceleration along the pleasant noise level of this promising new propulsion system.
Talking to Sascha Costabel about what is coming next: "the team is preparing all paperwork to ensure we can get EASA certification as soon as possible. We are now integrating the Ventus E in our production tool to ensure we can deliver first serial production gliders early 2025. The engineers will then, with our prototyping team, migrate this self-launch system in the Performance fuselage."
The Ventus E was tested in 18m wingspan configuration without water ballast. The Schempp-Hirth team willopen the full flight envelope of this new variant during the next weeks.