Type 5,
the Grunau Baby 2
More examples of the Grunau Baby were built than of
any other type of sailplane before or since (discounting
primary gliders, which were not intended for soaring
and so were not strictly termed sailplanes). There was
mass production in Germany until 1945, and in other
European countries under German occupation during
the Second World War. Fairly reliable factory records
suggest that at least 4,000 were produced between
1931 and 1945, though more than twice this total has
been claimed. Production figures for other outstandingly
successful types such as the Ka 6 series, reached
nothing like these totals.
The Grunau Baby was also built from plans and kits
by amateurs all over the world, and under licence in
almost every countiy where there were any glider
manufacturers. Substantial numbers of various marks,
sometimes disguised under new names, were produced
in Sweden, Switzerland, France, Spain, Yugoslavia,
West Germany and Britain in the post-war period.
The Grunau Baby 2 became the Slingsby TVpe 5.
About 15 were built at Kirbymoorside between 1935
and 1939, some for export, and an unknown number of
kits was also produced. Others were built in Britain
from plans during the same period.
Grunau, renamed Jesow after 1945, is in Silesia,
which today remains part of Poland. The village is a
strassetidorf, a simple row of cottages along each side
of the country road, typical of the area. Nearby was
Hirschberg (Stag mountain), now called Jelenia Gora,
on the margins of the Riesengebirge Highlands. In
1923, on the slopes close to the village, Silesian gliding
enthusiasts established a gliding school, and they
invited Gottlob Espenlaub, a cabinetmaker who had
made a reputation as a sailplane builder and pilot, to
join them and take charge. He brought with him
Edmund Schneider, another qualified craftsman.
Espenlaub moved on after three years, but Schneider
married a local girl and remained. The glider factory
was established in 1928, trading as Edmund Schneider,
Grunau, or ESG. At first the chief business was building
and repairing Grunau 9 primary gliders, but
Schneider designed several successful sailplanes, the
designs being numbered according to the year. Early in
1931 came the ESG 31 Stanavo. This was a relatively
simple and inexpensive strut-braced sailplane for the
American pilot Jack O'Meara, named after a brand of
aviation fuel marketed in Europe by the company
O'Meara represented, Standard Oil of New Jersey. The
Stanavo attracted favourable attention at the
Wasserkuppe competitions, although it was not
intended to compete with the very superior and costly
sailplanes flown by the recognised champions.
The first Grunau Baby was a smaller version of the
Stanavo. Its wing, of only 12.87m (42.2ft) span had a
planform similar to that used by the sailplanes of the
Akaflieg Darmstadt (Academic Flying Group of the
Darmstadt Technical University). A series of advanced
soaring craft, the Darmstadt 1, Westpreussen, Lore,
Musterle, Schloss Mainberg and others, had emerged
from the Darmstadt school. All had fully cantilevered
high aspect ratio wings of about 16m (52.5ft) span. A
few years previously the advantages of elliptical wings
had been proved by Ludwig Prandtl and his staff at
Gottingen University, and the Darmstadt sailplanes
achieved a very effective compromise with this ideal
planform. The inner half of the wing had constant
chord, but the outer panels tapered, the trailing edges
curving to approximate an ellipse.
Although the Grunau Baby was not expected or
intended to perform as well as these more expensive
aircraft, and was strut-braced, Schneider followed the
fashion. Such wings were not too hard to build, and
were more efficient than the plain rectangular form
preferred for primary gliders. The profile, Gottingen
535, well tested in Prandtl's wind tunnel and proved in
practice on earlier types, extended unchanged from
the wing root to the inner end of the ailerons. From
there the section changed progressively to a thin symmetrical
form. To prevent tip stalling, negative twist, or
washout, was introduced. Viewed from the rear, the
trailing edge swept upwards gradually towards the tip,
the laminated wood trailing edge member being
curved in two dimensions. The ailerons required
careful jigging during assembly, but this was the onlycomplicating feature of an otherwise simple wing. A
small amount of dihedral was built in, because all of
the taper in thickness was on the underside.
The monospar wing structure also followed the lead
set by the most efficient sailplanes. Baltic pine was
used for the spar flanges, with plywood shear webbing
between. The entire leading edge was covered with
birch plywood glued to the ribs and directly to the
upper and lower flanges of the spar to form a complete
tube of D cross-section. Sub-ribs ahead of the spar provided
additional stiffening for this stressed skin, which
resisted all the torsional loads. Aft of the mainspar the
unsupported wing ribs of the centre section could
sometimes distort under the tension of doped fabric
covering. To stiffen them laterally, linen tapes were
woven, criss-cross fashion, between the rib booms.
The simple wooden struts allowed the wing to be
light and simple yet strong. l T p and down loads were
transferred by the struts to the base of the main fuselage
cross frame, so there was no need to carry
massive bending stresses through the wing root itself,
which would have required a greatly reinforced
mainspar and elaborate steel fittings at the junction.
The attachments to the top of the main fuselage frames
were simple steel pins, one at the mainspar position,
one near the leading edge and one at the end of the
short rear diagonal spar. All of the pins, including those
holding the struts, were prevented from sliding out by
plain washers and safety pins. In 1931 the need for
spoilers or airbrakes for sailplanes had not been realised,
and the first Grunau Baby had none.
The Baby's fuselage was of hexagonal cross section,
and comprised a series of light cross-frames linked by
six longerons with a plywood skin forming a box. The
cockpit was open, lacking any kind of enclosing
canopy or windscreen. At this time it was considered
most undesirable for the sailplane pilot to be shielded
from the airflow. Airspeed indicators were rarely fitted,
so much had to be judged by the feel of the wind on the
pilot's face. Little attention was given to comfort. The
seating position was bolt upright and the seat itself no
more than a flat board.
The landing gear, as usual for the period, was a
rubber-sprung skid, laminated in ash. An open hook for
bungee launching was mounted on the front skid fitting.
The front skid attachment, a single bolt through the keel
longeron, proved a source of weakness which persisted
through all the later versions of the type. A landing with
drift could be relied on to split the skid at the front and
bend the attachment bolt or even tear it out of the longeron,
necessitating a tricky splicing job on this curved
member. Later, when winch and aero towed launches
were more common, it was easy to fit the Grunau Baby
with a more sophisticated tow release.
The tailplane, fabric covered and with internal diagonal
bracing, was held on to the rear fuselage frames by
two vertical bolts and braced with simple steel tubular
struts. A minimal fin and sternpost provided the attachment
for the aerodynamic-ally balanced rudder. All of
the controls were operated by stranded steel cables
running over pulleys, except for the steel torque tube
under the pilot's seat and two vertical pushrods in the
fuselage to drive the aileron bellcranks.
Soon after the prototype was completed in 1931 Wolf
Hirth, already famous among the gliding community
and recently returned from some extraordinary
soaring flights in the USA, came to Grunau to manage
the training school. (Among his pupils was to be a girl
from Hirschberg called Hanna Reitsch.) Schneider
showed Hirth the new Baby. Not foreseeing the misunderstanding
this was to cause, he obtained permission
to use Hirth's name in support of his sales
campaign. Although the glider had been completed
before he saw it, many subsequent reports wrongly
credited Hirth with the design, despite the fact that he
was in the USA when Schneider was building the
prototype. The association nevertheless did a good
deal for the Grunau factory.
The Grunau Baby proved popular, and before long
several were being turned out every week for sale to
clubs all over Germany. Six were entered for the 1932
Rhon competition, at which one of Schneider's other
more ambitious sailplanes suffered structural failure
in flight, killing the pilot. Realising that he needed more
help with stressing, Schneider persuaded Emile Rolle,
a qualified aircraft engineer, to work for the firm.
Rolle undertook a substantial redesign of the
(irunau Baby, improving and strengthening it in every
respect. The result was the Baby 2, which emerged
early in 1933. The span was increased to 13.5m
(44.28ft). The fuselage, which previously had a straight
back, was given a down-sweeping curve which
improved the airflow over the tail, and the tall, angular
rudder was reduced in height.
The cockpit of the Grunau Baby 1 was never
comfortable, and Rolle did little to improve it. Yet on 3
April 1933 Kurt Schmidt took off in a new Grunau Baby
2 over the East Prussian sand dunes. The stiff breeze
sweeping in from the Baltic provided continuous slope
lift all day, all night and into the next day. Schmidt
remained airborne for a new world duration soaring
record of 36hr 36min. Such an event made headline
news in those days, and the pilot and his aircraft
achieved immediate fame. The order book at Grunau
remained full for the next decade.
As a club sailplane the Baby handled well and safely,
and it was robust enough to perform simple aerobatics
and to withstand occasional heavy landings. It performed
quite well enough for inexperienced pilots to
attempt their first cross-country thermal soaring, and
in the following years many used the Grunau Baby to
complete the Silver C badge tests, which had been
introduced in 1930: a duration flight of 5hr, a soaring
ascent of 1,000m (3,280ft) and a cross-country distance
of 50km (30 miles). The 5hr flight was about as much as
most pilots could stand in a Baby, even with ample
cushions. Admiration for Schmidt's duration record
increased as the years went by.
In England, Louis Desoutter, a member of the
London Gliding Club now established at Dunstable,began building a Grunau Baby 1 in 1932. In June 1934
Desoutter was fatally injured in an accident to a
Dagling primary glider (a flying wire broke) before
completing the project, and the Baby was finished by
Slingsby in Yorkshire. This was probably Fred
Slingsby's first chance to study the design closely,
though at least one imported Baby 2 was already flying
in Britain at this time. Desoutter's Baby was returned
to Dunstable to make its first flights as a club sailplane
there on 30 December 1934. Its success was immediate,
especially since Desoutter, a superb craftsman,
had used ball bearings in place of plain pulleys in the
control circuits, making the aircraft extremely pleasant
to fly. The London Club asked Slingsby to supply
another Grunau Baby and an order also came from
Alan Cobham, who incorporated some gliding in his
National Aviation Day displays. Slingsby negotiated a
licence from Schneider, and production of the Grunau
Baby 2 began at Kirbymoorside immediately.
Cobham took the first one, employing Eric Collins,
the best sailplane pilot in Britain at the time and the first
British Silver C pilot, to fly it. Tragically, in a display at
Upwood, Cambridgeshire, on 30 July 1935, Collins
unwisely attempted an outside loop. The Grunau Baby
had not been designed for inverted manoeuvres of this
sort, and the wing collapsed. Although Collins had a
parachute he did not use it and was killed.
The London Club took delivery of their Slingsby
Grunau Baby 2 soon after this disaster. It was very
successful, operating with the club fleet alongside the
Desoutter Baby. Other clubs and private owner groups
soon followed the Dunstable lead.
The market for sailplanes in Britain was not large.
The relatively small total of Grunau Babies coming
from Kirbymoorside during the next few years may be
explained partly by the fact that Slingsby was very
soon offering other types of sailplane in direct
competition with the Baby. The first Kirby Kite was
already under construction before the London Gliding
Club received their Grunau Baby 2. Before long
Slingsby was also offering the Type 7 Kadet and Type 8
Tutor, which were, in Britain, destined to take over the
Grunau Baby's role and were cheaper.
On 31 July Angus O. Pick set a British duration
record of 13hr 27min in a Slingsby Grunau Baby at
Sutton Bank during an 'advanced course' held by the
Yorkshire Gliding Club. During this flight he witnessed,
from above, a mid-air collision between another
Grunau Baby and a Scud 2. The Scud, flown by W. R.
Horsfield, lost its nose, leaving the pilot's feet dangling
in mid-air, but he was able to land in trees and climbed
down unhurt. The Grunau 'fluttered down like a piece
of paper, for its tail was nearly off, but the pilot, Billy
Sharpe, also escaped injury.
Perhaps the most remarkable flight made in a
Grunau Baby in England was the climb to 11,140ft
(3,398m) by Noel McClean in June 1939 in the Helm
Wind wave over Cross Fell. The cold was intense in the
open cockpit, and contraction of the cables in the low
temperatures caused all the controls to become
extremely stiff. Getting the Baby 2 down without any
type of spoilers or dive brakes proved extremely difficult.
Drifting back to the downward side of the wave
would have dumped the sailplane far from home in
rough country, as had already happened to another
pilot. McClean rightly flew on the upwind side of the
cap cloud, but getting down through the upcurrent was
almost impossible. Steep sideslipping was the only
way the sailplane could be forced to lose height
without gaining excessive airspeed. McClean landed
safely at last, but held the record for only a few weeks.
In Germany, development continued. A little more
span; revised, narrower ailerons; spoilers and an
improved cockpit enclosure with canopy and windscreen
at last, appeared on the Grunau Baby 2A, and
the elevator was redesigned. Subsequently the Grunau
Baby 2B became the standard training sailplane
adopted by the National Socialist Fliegerkorps to train
many thousands of Hitler Youth pilots. It had powerful
air brakes of Schempp Hirth 'parallel ruler' type, and a
droppable wheeled dolly for take-off. Probably more
of this variant were built than of all the rest put
together. Derivatives of the Baby 2B were produced in
considerable numbers outside Germany after 1945.
Edmund Schneider was forced to flee westwards
with his family in 1944, losing his factory. He nevertheless
designed the Grunau Baby 3, which had a slightly
simplified wing, doing away with the redundant front
fuselage attachment fitting, and more washout. A
landing wheel was built-in, and the cockpit was
improved. The type was built under licence at
Poppenhausen by Alexander Schleicher.
Schneider and his two sons, Harry and Edmund
Junior, moved to Australia in 1951, and the Grunau 4 and
4B were manufactured in Adelaide. These were really
quite new designs, only the name carrying on the old
tradition. Harry Schneider continued the business after
his father's retirement. Edmund senior died in 1968.
Although the Slingsby factory was responsible for
the reconditioning and repair of some Grunau Baby
2Bs, in the immediate post-war period, there was no
further production of the type at Kirbymoorside.
Elliotts of Newbury stepped in, producing about 50
examples of the EON Baby, with a wheel and enlarged
cockpit.
Grunau Baby 2 data
Dimensions
Wingspan
Wing area
Aspect ratio
Wing sections:
Root
Tip
Length o.a.
Weights
Tare
Flying
Wing loading
13.5m (44ft Gin)
14.5m2 (156ft2)
11.4
Gottingen 535
Symmetrical
5.68m (18.6ft)
160kg (3521b)
250kg (5501b)
11.4kg/m2 (2.341b/ft2)
any other type of sailplane before or since (discounting
primary gliders, which were not intended for soaring
and so were not strictly termed sailplanes). There was
mass production in Germany until 1945, and in other
European countries under German occupation during
the Second World War. Fairly reliable factory records
suggest that at least 4,000 were produced between
1931 and 1945, though more than twice this total has
been claimed. Production figures for other outstandingly
successful types such as the Ka 6 series, reached
nothing like these totals.
The Grunau Baby was also built from plans and kits
by amateurs all over the world, and under licence in
almost every countiy where there were any glider
manufacturers. Substantial numbers of various marks,
sometimes disguised under new names, were produced
in Sweden, Switzerland, France, Spain, Yugoslavia,
West Germany and Britain in the post-war period.
The Grunau Baby 2 became the Slingsby TVpe 5.
About 15 were built at Kirbymoorside between 1935
and 1939, some for export, and an unknown number of
kits was also produced. Others were built in Britain
from plans during the same period.
Grunau, renamed Jesow after 1945, is in Silesia,
which today remains part of Poland. The village is a
strassetidorf, a simple row of cottages along each side
of the country road, typical of the area. Nearby was
Hirschberg (Stag mountain), now called Jelenia Gora,
on the margins of the Riesengebirge Highlands. In
1923, on the slopes close to the village, Silesian gliding
enthusiasts established a gliding school, and they
invited Gottlob Espenlaub, a cabinetmaker who had
made a reputation as a sailplane builder and pilot, to
join them and take charge. He brought with him
Edmund Schneider, another qualified craftsman.
Espenlaub moved on after three years, but Schneider
married a local girl and remained. The glider factory
was established in 1928, trading as Edmund Schneider,
Grunau, or ESG. At first the chief business was building
and repairing Grunau 9 primary gliders, but
Schneider designed several successful sailplanes, the
designs being numbered according to the year. Early in
1931 came the ESG 31 Stanavo. This was a relatively
simple and inexpensive strut-braced sailplane for the
American pilot Jack O'Meara, named after a brand of
aviation fuel marketed in Europe by the company
O'Meara represented, Standard Oil of New Jersey. The
Stanavo attracted favourable attention at the
Wasserkuppe competitions, although it was not
intended to compete with the very superior and costly
sailplanes flown by the recognised champions.
The first Grunau Baby was a smaller version of the
Stanavo. Its wing, of only 12.87m (42.2ft) span had a
planform similar to that used by the sailplanes of the
Akaflieg Darmstadt (Academic Flying Group of the
Darmstadt Technical University). A series of advanced
soaring craft, the Darmstadt 1, Westpreussen, Lore,
Musterle, Schloss Mainberg and others, had emerged
from the Darmstadt school. All had fully cantilevered
high aspect ratio wings of about 16m (52.5ft) span. A
few years previously the advantages of elliptical wings
had been proved by Ludwig Prandtl and his staff at
Gottingen University, and the Darmstadt sailplanes
achieved a very effective compromise with this ideal
planform. The inner half of the wing had constant
chord, but the outer panels tapered, the trailing edges
curving to approximate an ellipse.
Although the Grunau Baby was not expected or
intended to perform as well as these more expensive
aircraft, and was strut-braced, Schneider followed the
fashion. Such wings were not too hard to build, and
were more efficient than the plain rectangular form
preferred for primary gliders. The profile, Gottingen
535, well tested in Prandtl's wind tunnel and proved in
practice on earlier types, extended unchanged from
the wing root to the inner end of the ailerons. From
there the section changed progressively to a thin symmetrical
form. To prevent tip stalling, negative twist, or
washout, was introduced. Viewed from the rear, the
trailing edge swept upwards gradually towards the tip,
the laminated wood trailing edge member being
curved in two dimensions. The ailerons required
careful jigging during assembly, but this was the onlycomplicating feature of an otherwise simple wing. A
small amount of dihedral was built in, because all of
the taper in thickness was on the underside.
The monospar wing structure also followed the lead
set by the most efficient sailplanes. Baltic pine was
used for the spar flanges, with plywood shear webbing
between. The entire leading edge was covered with
birch plywood glued to the ribs and directly to the
upper and lower flanges of the spar to form a complete
tube of D cross-section. Sub-ribs ahead of the spar provided
additional stiffening for this stressed skin, which
resisted all the torsional loads. Aft of the mainspar the
unsupported wing ribs of the centre section could
sometimes distort under the tension of doped fabric
covering. To stiffen them laterally, linen tapes were
woven, criss-cross fashion, between the rib booms.
The simple wooden struts allowed the wing to be
light and simple yet strong. l T p and down loads were
transferred by the struts to the base of the main fuselage
cross frame, so there was no need to carry
massive bending stresses through the wing root itself,
which would have required a greatly reinforced
mainspar and elaborate steel fittings at the junction.
The attachments to the top of the main fuselage frames
were simple steel pins, one at the mainspar position,
one near the leading edge and one at the end of the
short rear diagonal spar. All of the pins, including those
holding the struts, were prevented from sliding out by
plain washers and safety pins. In 1931 the need for
spoilers or airbrakes for sailplanes had not been realised,
and the first Grunau Baby had none.
The Baby's fuselage was of hexagonal cross section,
and comprised a series of light cross-frames linked by
six longerons with a plywood skin forming a box. The
cockpit was open, lacking any kind of enclosing
canopy or windscreen. At this time it was considered
most undesirable for the sailplane pilot to be shielded
from the airflow. Airspeed indicators were rarely fitted,
so much had to be judged by the feel of the wind on the
pilot's face. Little attention was given to comfort. The
seating position was bolt upright and the seat itself no
more than a flat board.
The landing gear, as usual for the period, was a
rubber-sprung skid, laminated in ash. An open hook for
bungee launching was mounted on the front skid fitting.
The front skid attachment, a single bolt through the keel
longeron, proved a source of weakness which persisted
through all the later versions of the type. A landing with
drift could be relied on to split the skid at the front and
bend the attachment bolt or even tear it out of the longeron,
necessitating a tricky splicing job on this curved
member. Later, when winch and aero towed launches
were more common, it was easy to fit the Grunau Baby
with a more sophisticated tow release.
The tailplane, fabric covered and with internal diagonal
bracing, was held on to the rear fuselage frames by
two vertical bolts and braced with simple steel tubular
struts. A minimal fin and sternpost provided the attachment
for the aerodynamic-ally balanced rudder. All of
the controls were operated by stranded steel cables
running over pulleys, except for the steel torque tube
under the pilot's seat and two vertical pushrods in the
fuselage to drive the aileron bellcranks.
Soon after the prototype was completed in 1931 Wolf
Hirth, already famous among the gliding community
and recently returned from some extraordinary
soaring flights in the USA, came to Grunau to manage
the training school. (Among his pupils was to be a girl
from Hirschberg called Hanna Reitsch.) Schneider
showed Hirth the new Baby. Not foreseeing the misunderstanding
this was to cause, he obtained permission
to use Hirth's name in support of his sales
campaign. Although the glider had been completed
before he saw it, many subsequent reports wrongly
credited Hirth with the design, despite the fact that he
was in the USA when Schneider was building the
prototype. The association nevertheless did a good
deal for the Grunau factory.
The Grunau Baby proved popular, and before long
several were being turned out every week for sale to
clubs all over Germany. Six were entered for the 1932
Rhon competition, at which one of Schneider's other
more ambitious sailplanes suffered structural failure
in flight, killing the pilot. Realising that he needed more
help with stressing, Schneider persuaded Emile Rolle,
a qualified aircraft engineer, to work for the firm.
Rolle undertook a substantial redesign of the
(irunau Baby, improving and strengthening it in every
respect. The result was the Baby 2, which emerged
early in 1933. The span was increased to 13.5m
(44.28ft). The fuselage, which previously had a straight
back, was given a down-sweeping curve which
improved the airflow over the tail, and the tall, angular
rudder was reduced in height.
The cockpit of the Grunau Baby 1 was never
comfortable, and Rolle did little to improve it. Yet on 3
April 1933 Kurt Schmidt took off in a new Grunau Baby
2 over the East Prussian sand dunes. The stiff breeze
sweeping in from the Baltic provided continuous slope
lift all day, all night and into the next day. Schmidt
remained airborne for a new world duration soaring
record of 36hr 36min. Such an event made headline
news in those days, and the pilot and his aircraft
achieved immediate fame. The order book at Grunau
remained full for the next decade.
As a club sailplane the Baby handled well and safely,
and it was robust enough to perform simple aerobatics
and to withstand occasional heavy landings. It performed
quite well enough for inexperienced pilots to
attempt their first cross-country thermal soaring, and
in the following years many used the Grunau Baby to
complete the Silver C badge tests, which had been
introduced in 1930: a duration flight of 5hr, a soaring
ascent of 1,000m (3,280ft) and a cross-country distance
of 50km (30 miles). The 5hr flight was about as much as
most pilots could stand in a Baby, even with ample
cushions. Admiration for Schmidt's duration record
increased as the years went by.
In England, Louis Desoutter, a member of the
London Gliding Club now established at Dunstable,began building a Grunau Baby 1 in 1932. In June 1934
Desoutter was fatally injured in an accident to a
Dagling primary glider (a flying wire broke) before
completing the project, and the Baby was finished by
Slingsby in Yorkshire. This was probably Fred
Slingsby's first chance to study the design closely,
though at least one imported Baby 2 was already flying
in Britain at this time. Desoutter's Baby was returned
to Dunstable to make its first flights as a club sailplane
there on 30 December 1934. Its success was immediate,
especially since Desoutter, a superb craftsman,
had used ball bearings in place of plain pulleys in the
control circuits, making the aircraft extremely pleasant
to fly. The London Club asked Slingsby to supply
another Grunau Baby and an order also came from
Alan Cobham, who incorporated some gliding in his
National Aviation Day displays. Slingsby negotiated a
licence from Schneider, and production of the Grunau
Baby 2 began at Kirbymoorside immediately.
Cobham took the first one, employing Eric Collins,
the best sailplane pilot in Britain at the time and the first
British Silver C pilot, to fly it. Tragically, in a display at
Upwood, Cambridgeshire, on 30 July 1935, Collins
unwisely attempted an outside loop. The Grunau Baby
had not been designed for inverted manoeuvres of this
sort, and the wing collapsed. Although Collins had a
parachute he did not use it and was killed.
The London Club took delivery of their Slingsby
Grunau Baby 2 soon after this disaster. It was very
successful, operating with the club fleet alongside the
Desoutter Baby. Other clubs and private owner groups
soon followed the Dunstable lead.
The market for sailplanes in Britain was not large.
The relatively small total of Grunau Babies coming
from Kirbymoorside during the next few years may be
explained partly by the fact that Slingsby was very
soon offering other types of sailplane in direct
competition with the Baby. The first Kirby Kite was
already under construction before the London Gliding
Club received their Grunau Baby 2. Before long
Slingsby was also offering the Type 7 Kadet and Type 8
Tutor, which were, in Britain, destined to take over the
Grunau Baby's role and were cheaper.
On 31 July Angus O. Pick set a British duration
record of 13hr 27min in a Slingsby Grunau Baby at
Sutton Bank during an 'advanced course' held by the
Yorkshire Gliding Club. During this flight he witnessed,
from above, a mid-air collision between another
Grunau Baby and a Scud 2. The Scud, flown by W. R.
Horsfield, lost its nose, leaving the pilot's feet dangling
in mid-air, but he was able to land in trees and climbed
down unhurt. The Grunau 'fluttered down like a piece
of paper, for its tail was nearly off, but the pilot, Billy
Sharpe, also escaped injury.
Perhaps the most remarkable flight made in a
Grunau Baby in England was the climb to 11,140ft
(3,398m) by Noel McClean in June 1939 in the Helm
Wind wave over Cross Fell. The cold was intense in the
open cockpit, and contraction of the cables in the low
temperatures caused all the controls to become
extremely stiff. Getting the Baby 2 down without any
type of spoilers or dive brakes proved extremely difficult.
Drifting back to the downward side of the wave
would have dumped the sailplane far from home in
rough country, as had already happened to another
pilot. McClean rightly flew on the upwind side of the
cap cloud, but getting down through the upcurrent was
almost impossible. Steep sideslipping was the only
way the sailplane could be forced to lose height
without gaining excessive airspeed. McClean landed
safely at last, but held the record for only a few weeks.
In Germany, development continued. A little more
span; revised, narrower ailerons; spoilers and an
improved cockpit enclosure with canopy and windscreen
at last, appeared on the Grunau Baby 2A, and
the elevator was redesigned. Subsequently the Grunau
Baby 2B became the standard training sailplane
adopted by the National Socialist Fliegerkorps to train
many thousands of Hitler Youth pilots. It had powerful
air brakes of Schempp Hirth 'parallel ruler' type, and a
droppable wheeled dolly for take-off. Probably more
of this variant were built than of all the rest put
together. Derivatives of the Baby 2B were produced in
considerable numbers outside Germany after 1945.
Edmund Schneider was forced to flee westwards
with his family in 1944, losing his factory. He nevertheless
designed the Grunau Baby 3, which had a slightly
simplified wing, doing away with the redundant front
fuselage attachment fitting, and more washout. A
landing wheel was built-in, and the cockpit was
improved. The type was built under licence at
Poppenhausen by Alexander Schleicher.
Schneider and his two sons, Harry and Edmund
Junior, moved to Australia in 1951, and the Grunau 4 and
4B were manufactured in Adelaide. These were really
quite new designs, only the name carrying on the old
tradition. Harry Schneider continued the business after
his father's retirement. Edmund senior died in 1968.
Although the Slingsby factory was responsible for
the reconditioning and repair of some Grunau Baby
2Bs, in the immediate post-war period, there was no
further production of the type at Kirbymoorside.
Elliotts of Newbury stepped in, producing about 50
examples of the EON Baby, with a wheel and enlarged
cockpit.
Grunau Baby 2 data
Dimensions
Wingspan
Wing area
Aspect ratio
Wing sections:
Root
Tip
Length o.a.
Weights
Tare
Flying
Wing loading
13.5m (44ft Gin)
14.5m2 (156ft2)
11.4
Gottingen 535
Symmetrical
5.68m (18.6ft)
160kg (3521b)
250kg (5501b)
11.4kg/m2 (2.341b/ft2)