Akaflieg Stuttgart fs31 Ferdinand Porsche

Akaflieg Stuttgart · Germany · first flew 1981 · glider

The Akaflieg Stuttgart fs31 Ferdinand Porsche is a tandem-seat, dual-control training glider designed and built in Germany between 1977 and 1981. It was meant to have high performance yet be robust enough for student use.

Recognition (WEFT)

W — Wings	Mid-mounted, tapered
E — Engines	1 × none, embedded-mounted
F — Fuselage	8.82 m fuselage
T — Tail	T-tail

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Spot it by:

Mid-mounted straight-tapered wings with 4 degrees of dihedral
T-tail with a narrow-chord tailplane
Tandem seats under a long single-piece canopy and a retractable monowheel

The fuselage narrows to a slender boom behind the wing trailing edge, and the shells are split horizontally. The structure is carbon and Kevlar hybrid.

Specifications

The Akaflieg Stuttgart fs31 Ferdinand Porsche has a length of 8.82 m (29 ft).
It has a wingspan of 17.5 m (57 ft).
Its maximum speed is 250 km/h (155 mph).
Typical crew: 2.

Figures are for the representative variant described above; marks differ. See how AircraftIQ sources figures.

History

Its wings came from the Grob G 103 Twin Astir prototype and its T-tail from the Glasflügel 604. The fs31 first flew on 30 December 1981, and some improvements to the wing root-fuselage junction were made in 1982.

Variants

Only one was built, and it was not intended for production. Its fuselage design served as the basis for the Schleicher AS 22-2, later developed into the ASH 25, the Akaflieg Stuttgart fs33 and the Akaflieg Braunschweig SB 15.

Where you'll see it

It won the Klippeneck gliding competition of July 1982 while still in field trial. It entered service with the Akaflieg Stuttgart in April 1983 and has logged over 7,100 flying hours and 23,000 take-offs in almost 40 years as a trainer.

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