Göppingen Gö 9

Schempp-Hirth · Germany · first flew 1941 · light aircraft

The Göppingen Gö 9 was a German experimental aircraft built to investigate powering a plane with a pusher propeller located far from the engine and turned by a long driveshaft.

Recognition (WEFT)

W — Wings	High-mounted, straight
E — Engines	1 × piston, fuselage-mounted
F — Fuselage	Four-blade pusher propeller at the rear, driven by a long shaft from an engine in the fuselage near the wings
T — Tail	Cruciform

WEFT is AircraftIQ's four-point recognition method — how it works.

Spot it by:

Four-surface cruciform tail with a large ventral fin and rudder carrying a small tailwheel
Four-blade pusher propeller at the rear, driven by a long shaft from an engine in the fuselage near the wings
Retractable tricycle landing gear on an all-wood airframe

A small wooden aircraft with a cruciform tail and a rear-mounted four-blade pusher propeller.

Specifications

The Göppingen Gö 9 has a length of 6.8 m (22 ft).
It has a wingspan of 7.2 m (24 ft).
Its maximum speed is 220 km/h (137 mph).
Typical crew: 1.

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

History

Claudius Dornier patented the idea in 1937 and commissioned a test plane. Ulrich Hütter designed it as a 40% scale version of the Dornier Do 17 fuselage and wings, and Schempp-Hirth built it.

Variants

Only one was built, carrying the civil registration D-EBYW. It was powered by a Hirth HM 60 inverted inline four-cylinder engine.

Where you'll see it

Flight tests began in June 1941, initially towed aloft and later under its own power. The design validated Dornier's ideas and led to the Dornier Do 335, and the fate of the Gö 9 is not known.

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