Schleicher Ka 8

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**Schleicher Ka 8**

Type designation	Ka 8
Competition class	Club, formerly Standard
Number built	1100+
Crew	1
Length	7.00 m
Height	1.57 m
Wingspan	15.00 m
Wing area	14.15 m²
Aspect ratio	15.9
Wing profile:	Göttingen 533/532
Empty mass	ca. 190 kg
Water ballast	N/A
Maximum mass	310 kg
Wing loading	ca. 20 - 22 kg/m²
Maximum speed	200 km/h (108 knots)
Rough air speed	130 km/h (70 knots)
Stall speed	54 km/h (29 knots)
Minimum sink rate	ca. 0.65 m/s (1.2 knots)
Best glide ratio	27 at 72 km/h (39 knots)

Ka 8b

The Schleicher Ka 8 is a single-seat glider designed by Rudolf Kaiser and built by the Alexander Schleicher company of Germany.

[edit] History and characteristics

The Ka 8 was derived from the earlier Ka 6 design as a simple single-place sailplane with dive brakes using construction techniques similar to the Ka 7, simplified for amateur construction from kits. Emphasis was on rugged construction, good climbing ability in thermals and good handling characteristics.

The prototype Ka 8 made its first flight in November 1957 and over 1,100 were built in three main versions. The original Ka 8 had a very small canopy. Side windows for improved visibility were introduced in the next version, and the Ka 8B, by far the most numerous variant, has a larger one-piece blown Plexiglas canopy. The Ka 8C features a longer nose, larger main wheel located ahead of the center of gravity and deletion of the larger wooden nose skid resulting in a roomier cockpit.

The cantilever high wings are single-spar structures of pine and plywood, with a plywood leading edge torsion box and fabric covering aft of the spar; their forward sweep is 1ø 18' and dihedral is 3ø. There are Schempp-Hirth air brakes in the upper and lower surfaces and the wooden ailerons are plywood covered. The cantilever tail unit is of similar construction to the wings, with ply-covered fixed surfaces and fabric-covered rudder and elevators, and a trim tab in the elevator is an optional fitting. The fuselage is a welded steel tube structure, with fabric covering over spruce longerons and a glassfibre nose cone. There is a non-retractable and unsprung monowheel, with optional brake, and a nose skid mounted on rubber blocks in front of it, plus a steel spur at the tail.

A motor glider conversion of the Ka 8B was developed by LVD (the Flying Training School of the Detmold Aero Club) similar to their conversion of a Scheibe Bergfalke IV known as the BF IV-BIMO, in which a Lloyd LS-400 piston engine mounted in the fuselage drives a pair of small two-blade pusher propellers rotating within cutouts in each wing near the trailing edge.

Karl Striedieck of the United States made a 767 km / 476.6 mile ridge flight in a Ka 8B to establish a World Out-and-Return Record in 1968.