Grob G103 Twin Astir

Grob · Germany · first flew 1976 · light aircraft

Grob's two-seat companion to the Astir, first flown on the last day of 1976 and a fixture of club training fleets ever since.

Recognition (WEFT)

W — Wings	Mid-mounted, tapered
E — Engines	1 × piston, embedded-mounted
F — Fuselage	8.1 m fuselage
T — Tail	T-tail

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

Spot it by:

Unpowered sailplane — no engine
Large glassfibre tandem two-seater with a long stepped canopy
17.5-metre gently tapered wing and T-tail

A big, slightly portly tandem two-seater: look for the long canopy with a step between the two segments, gently tapered 17.5-metre wings without the ASK 21's elegance, and a T-tail. The ASK 21 has a smoother one-piece canopy line and crisper wing.

Specifications

The Grob G103 Twin Astir has a length of 8.1 m (27 ft).
It has a wingspan of 17.5 m (57 ft).
Its maximum speed is 250 km/h (155 mph).
Typical crew: 2 (tandem).

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

History

Developed as a two-seat counterpart to the single-seat G102, the Twin Astir first flew on 31 December 1976 with a 17.5-metre wing and, unusually, a retractable mainwheel offset to one side. It gave clubs an affordable glassfibre trainer at the moment wood was giving way to glass.

Variants

The original Twin Astir was refined into the fixed-gear G103a Twin II of 1980 and then the G103c Twin III and aerobatic Twin III Acro, which together sold in very large numbers to clubs and air forces.

Where you'll see it

Twin Astirs and Twin IIs serve at BGA clubs across the UK as second-string trainers and air-experience workhorses, valued for big cockpits and steady handling. Many British pilots convert to glass or fly their first passengers in one.

Related aircraft

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