LF-1 Zaunkoenig
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The LF-1 Zaunkoenig was a STOL aircraft developed in 1939 by the Technical University of Brunswick, Lower Saxony, Germany. Its wingspan was 8 m, MTOW was 355 kg. Equipped with a Zündapp Z9-92 delivering 50 hp, it needed an airstrip of 20 m x 100 m to operate. At maximal flaps, its stall speed was 50 km/h.
Two of these remarkable aircraft are still operated. (D-EBCQ / D-EBCG)
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{[Category:German aircraft 1930-1939]]
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At least one such aircraft was, during mid 1958, kept at Kidlington airfield near Oxford, England. I was learning to fly there at the time, and on one afternoon in June that year, had taken off in a Tiger Moth, having turned into wind and started my take-off run in front of the Zaunkoenig. At five hundred feet, I turned ninety degrees to port, and looking over my shoulder saw the Zaunkoenig above me! It seemed to just leap off the ground and go up! It didn't seem to climb, as it just lifted from the ground in a more or less horizontal position without being "nose up" and rose! High parasol wing, as I remember, with leading edge slots and huge flaps. Tailplane mounted at the top of a tall, large-area fin with a disproportionately large rudder. Wide spread, and spindly-looking fixed undercarriage. Fuselage about two and a half feet wide at the open cockpit. Definitely an aircraft for low wind-speed flying. I suspect it could have crossed the airfield backwards, at negative ground speed, without stalling, facing into a twenty knot head wind.
