DFS Olympia Meise

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The DFS Olympia Meise (German: "Olympic Tomtit") was a sailplane designed for Olympic competition, based on the DFS Meise.

After the Olympic games in Berlin in 1936 introduced gliding as an Olympic sport, plans were made to fly the 1940 Olympic championships with a unity design sailplane to give each pilot the same chances. As a result of this, the Meise was redesigned to fit into the new Olympic class specifications. The new 'Olympia' Meise had the prescribed wingspan of 15 m (45 ft), spoilers, but no flaps, and an undercarriage consisting out of a skid and a non-retractable wheel. The pilot sat all-enclosed in an aerodynamically clean fuselage made out of laminated wood and topped by an acrylic glass hood. The plane could be towed by winch as well by airplane. Its wood-and-fabric construction made it easy for flying clubs to maintain, to repair and even to build the gliders from kits.

Both the Meise as well as the Olympic class gained immediate enthusiastic support, and the 1940 Olympic gliding championship would probably have ended up as an all-Meise contest — if the Second World War had not intervened. As it happened, the 1940 Olympics were canceled. The design of the Olympia Meise however survived the war and it enjoyed great popularity as an advanced performance sailplane for many years until it was eventually eclipsed by later designs.

After the war the design was taken up by a British firm called Chilton Aircraft Co. but after building one prototype, the rights and drawing were taken up by Elliotts of Newbury in the UK. (After the war, Elliotts had been forbidden to resume their pre-war furniture business and so continued to make gliders.) Their first Olympia flew in 1947. Later variants by Elliotts continued to be produced as gliders suitable for the World Gliding Championships into the late 1950s. The Olympia was also built after the war in France as the Nord 2000, in Spain and Czechoslovakia as the Zlin 25 Sohaj.

[edit] Specifications (Olympia Meise)

[edit] General characteristics

• Crew: one, pilot
• Length: 7.27 m (23 ft 10 in)
• Wingspan: 15.00 m (49 ft 2 in)
• Height: m ( ft 2 in)
• Wing area: 15 m² (161 ft²)
• Aspect ratio: 15:1
• Empty: 205 kg (452 lb)
• Loaded: kg ( lb)
• Maximum takeoff: 300 kg (661 lb)

[edit] Performance

• Maximum speed: 200 km/h (125 mph)
• Maximum glide ratio: 1:25
• Rate of sink: m/min ( ft/min)
• Wing loading: kg/m² (lb/ft²)

[edit] Related content

Related development: DFS Meise

Comparable aircraft:

Designation sequence: 108-66 - 108-68 - 108-70