Schneider ES-65 Platypus
Edmund Schneider Pty · Australia · first flew 1984 · glider
The Schneider ES-65 Platypus is a two-seater unflapped glider designed and built by Edmund Schneider Pty in Australia. A single prototype was built, which remained operational in 2012.
Recognition (WEFT)
| W — Wings | Mid-mounted, tapered |
|---|---|
| E — Engines | 1 × none, embedded-mounted |
| F — Fuselage | Pod-and-boom glass-fibre fuselage with side-by-side seating |
| T — Tail | Cruciform |
WEFT is AircraftIQ's four-point recognition method — how it works.
Spot it by:
- Mid-mounted plywood-skinned wing with an unswept leading edge and forward-swept trailing edge
- Pod-and-boom glass-fibre fuselage with side-by-side seating
- Horizontal tail mounted midway up a tall fin
A side-by-side two-seat glider with a mid-mounted wing, airbrakes just behind the spar, a fixed two-wheel pod undercarriage and a tall fin with the tailplane part-way up.
Specifications
- The Schneider ES-65 Platypus has a length of 7.73 m (25 ft).
- It has a wingspan of 17.7 m (58 ft).
- Its maximum speed is 260 km/h (162 mph).
- Typical crew: 2.
Figures are for the representative variant described above; marks differ. See how AircraftIQ sources figures.
History
Harry Schneider began the ES-64 as a side-by-side two-seater combining ES-60 wings with a new glass-fibre fuselage, but Australian gliding clubs showed little interest. In the early 1980s Schneider revived it as the simplified ES-65, which first flew in August 1984.
Variants
There were plans for an all-glass-fibre version, but the funding was not available and no more ES-65s were built.
Where you'll see it
The prototype, VH-GFA, is owned by a syndicate of members of the Geelong Gliding Club and the Victorian Motorless Flight Group at Bacchus Marsh, Victoria, and was still operational in 2005.
Related aircraft
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