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27-552: The Nimbus-4 family is a direct derivative of its predecessors at the highest performance end of the Schempp-Hirth product range, the Nimbus-2 and Nimbus-3 . In total as of 2010, 44 single-seat and 100 two-seat models have been produced. The wing taper varies along the span, which is increased to 26.5 metres. The aspect ratio is 38.8. The fuselage is also lengthened and a larger rudder fitted. The manufacturer claims this glider has

54-552: A glide ratio of better than 60:1 at a best glide airspeed of 110 km/h (59 knots ), meaning it can glide over 60 kilometres on course for every 1000 metres of altitude lost in still air. There is a two-seat version, the 4D, and motor glider versions with either turbo engines (designation T) or self-launching engines (designation M). The Nimbus-4DM is typical of the Nimbus-4 design, except for variations in cockpit and powerplant configuration and associated operating limitations. It

81-417: A wing tip , outboard section, and inboard section. The inboard sections mate at the fuselage and the outer wing sections mate with the inboard sections approximately 12.6 feet outboard of the fuselage root chord. The wing shells are a carbon fiber / foam core sandwich construction with one main spar constructed of a glass fiber /foam core shear web and carbon fiber spar flanges. A single-vane flap spans

108-495: A feminine Height Gain record of 10212 m in 1988, and Joann Shaw a feminine Distance record of 951.43 km in 1990, all flying Nimbus-2. At its time several national and world records were held by Nimbus-2M's in the FAI motorglider category. In 1979 Klaus Holighaus , the glider's designer, completed the first 1,000 km triangle in Germany flying a Nimbus-2. The Nimbus-2 was succeeded by

135-773: Is 324 km/h). The pilot survived by bailing out. According to the LBA, "As far as we know, none of the incidents/accidents recorded indicated a technical failure." The Nimbus-4DM is a model of the "Nimbus-4 Family," which consists of single-seat and two-seat gliders and motor gliders. The engine in each motor glider retracts into the fuselage, behind the cockpit. The different models are (production data as of 1999): Data from General characteristics Performance [REDACTED]  This article incorporates public domain material from NTSB Aviation Accident Brief NTSB/AAB-02/06 (PDF) . United States Government . Schempp-Hirth Nimbus-2 The Schempp-Hirth Nimbus-2

162-408: Is a 2-seat, high-performance motorized glider, constructed from fiber reinforced plastic (FRP) composites, featuring full span flight controls and a T-tail (with fixed horizontal stabilizer and two-piece elevator ). The manufacturing process uses a hand lay-up of composite material plies and epoxy resins . The wing's 26.5-meter (87-foot) span consists of three sections per side, consisting of

189-585: Is an Open Class glider built by Schempp-Hirth during the 1970s. The Nimbus-2 first flew in April 1971 and a total of over 240 examples of all subtypes have been built until the beginning of the 1980s. It replaced the Schempp-Hirth Cirrus . Loosely based on the original Nimbus HS-3 prototype, the production version that eventually surfaced as the Nimbus-2 was a very different glider with many improvements over

216-409: Is constructed of glass fiber/foam core sandwich. The flight controls are all push/pull tubes except for the rudder, which is controlled via cables. The Nimbus-4DM is powered by a liquid-cooled 44 kW Bombardier Rotax 535C engine with a 3:1 belt reduction drive . The powerplant is housed in the fuselage immediately aft of the wing. An electrically driven spindle drive ( jackscrew ) extends

243-551: Is in excess of its V NE . It was flown by Klaus Ohlmann and Matias Garcia Mazzaro on 22 December 2006. U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigators queried the German Luftfahrt-Bundesamt (LBA), Germany's equivalent of the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), regarding the accident history of the Nimbus-4DM in conjunction with a 1999 accident near Minden, Nevada where both occupants of

270-545: The Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure . The LBA is responsible for developing and maintaining aviation safety standards , as well as certifying airlines, airports, and training devices such a simulators and Flight Training Devices (FTDs). Some of these tasks are fulfilled on behalf of the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA). Investigation of accidents is not a responsibility of

297-785: The Schempp-Hirth Nimbus-3 . Data from Jane's all the World's Aircraft 1976–77 General characteristics Performance Aircraft of comparable role, configuration, and era Related lists Luftfahrt-Bundesamt The Luftfahrt-Bundesamt ( LBA , " Federal Aviation Office ") is the national civil aviation authority of Germany headquartered in Braunschweig . It maintains regional offices in Düsseldorf , Frankfurt am Main ( Raunheim ), Hamburg , Munich ( Airport ), Stuttgart , and Berlin and reports directly to

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324-677: The LBA but of the German Federal Bureau of Aircraft Accident Investigation . In 1918, when the Weimar Republic had been established, matters of aviation were provisionally assigned to the Reichsamt des Inneren (Imperial Ministry of the Interior). Later , the Reichsluftamt (Imperial Agency of Aviation) was established. After World War II , matters of aviation were initially handled by

351-747: The Luftfahrt-Bundesamt) of 30 November 1954 (BGBl. I 354) and commenced operation on 1 February 1955. In East Germany , the Hauptverwaltung der Zivilen Luftfahrt (Central Administration for Civil Aviation) was established on 1 January 1961. It was replaced by the Staatliche Luftfahrt-Inspektion der DDR (Public Department of Aviation of the GDR) on 1 January 1968, from which the Luftfahrt-Bundesamt took over all operations and most of

378-628: The NTSB. The first was a non-injury long landing accident in Fayence , France, on 4 September 1994. The second involved a collision with the ground during takeoff in Fuentemilanos , Spain, on 27 July 1997, which resulted in two fatalities. The improper installation of the horizontal stabilizer led to the third accident in Lüsse , Germany, on 13 June 1999, in which two occupants were injured during an attempted takeoff when

405-584: The Open Class in World Gliding Championships : Göran Ax (Sweden) in 1972 and George Moffat (USA) in 1974. It was also popular with record-seekers. Bruce Lindsey Drake, David Napier Speight and Sholto Hamilton "Dick" Georgeson jointly set a World Goal and Free Distance record of 1,254 km in New Zealand in 1978, Doris Grove a feminine Out and Return record of 1,127 km in 1981, Yvonne Loader

432-530: The Spanish authorities, the pilot stated they were in a turn when a heavy thermal caused the glider to enter a steep descending spiral. The pilot could not recover the aircraft from the spiral and the airspeed quickly exceeded Vne. The pilot then reported that the right wing failed and he bailed out. The BFU has recorded four incidents/accidents with the single-seat versions. Three events are known of non-injury accidents during off-field landings , and one fatal accident

459-617: The administration of the Allied occupation powers. Some matters of aviation were transferred to the '"Vorläufige Bundesstelle für Luftfahrtgerät und Flugunfalluntersuchung'" (Provisional Federal Office for Avionic Devices and Investigation of Aviation Accidents) established on 15 September 1953 in Bonn . Eventually, the Luftfahrt-Bundesamt was established by the Gesetz über das Luftfahrt-Bundesamt (Act on

486-404: The aircraft were killed. In this accident, the glider broke up in flight during the recovery phase after a departure from controlled flight while maneuvering in thermal lift conditions. Airborne witnesses in other gliders who saw the beginning of the accident sequence said the glider was in a tight turn, as if climbing in a thermal, when it entered a spiral. With a 45-degree nose-down attitude,

513-489: The entire inboard wing section. Three sections of ailerons (that is, inboard, center, and outboard) span the outboard wing section with a fourth aileron, used to minimize the effects of adverse yaw, attached to the wing tip. The forward fuselage ( cockpit ) is constructed of Kevlar , carbon and glass fiber laminate, reinforced by a double skin on the sides with integrated surrounding canopy frame and seat pan mounting flanges. The single-piece canopy hinges sideways and opens to

540-427: The outboard wing tip panels separated from the glider, the wings disintegrated, and the fuselage dived into the ground. Several witnesses estimated that the wing deflection reached 45 degrees or more before the wings failed. Examination of the wreckage disclosed that the left and right outboard wing sections failed symmetrically at two locations. In this case, the NTSB determined "that the probable cause of this accident

567-488: The problematic prototype. The wing was shortened to 20.3 metres and was built in four sections to make it easier to rig and transport. It received Schempp-Hirth air brakes fitted in the upper surfaces and a tail braking-parachute, plus camber-changing flaps. It had an all-flying T-tail similar to the Standard Cirrus as well as the general layout of its fuselage. The Nimbus-2 was successful in competitions, twice winning

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594-450: The propeller pylon upwards and forward from the engine bay. When stowed, two doors mounted to the rear fuselage conceal the powerplant. The jackscrew is attached between the airframe and the upper forward end of the pylon such that when the jackscrew is retracted (shortened) the pylon is pulled upwards and forward into its flight position. A 4DM holds the world record for speed over a 500 km course - 306.8 km/h (190.6 mph) which

621-456: The right. The aft fuselage section is constructed of a pure carbon fiber monolithic shell, stiffened by carbon fiber/foam core bulkheads and glass fiber webs. The horizontal stabilizer is constructed of glass fiber/foam core sandwich with carbon fiber reinforcements. The elevator halves are a hybrid composite (carbon and glass fiber) monolithic shell. The vertical stabilizer is carbon fiber/foam core sandwich construction. The single-piece rudder

648-490: The speed quickly built up as the glider completed two full rotations. The rotation then stopped, the flight stabilized on a northeasterly heading, and the nose pitched further down to a near-vertical attitude (this is consistent with the spin recovery technique specified in the Aircraft Flight Manual (AFM)). The glider was observed to level its attitude, with the wings bending upward and the wing tips coning higher, when

675-603: The stabilizer separated from the empennage just after liftoff. NTSB investigators became aware of another accident involving a Nimbus-4DM that occurred in Spain shortly after the Minden, Nevada, accident. According to the Comisión de Investigación de Accidentes e Incidentes de Aviación Civil , Spain's equivalent of the NTSB, the glider broke up in flight following a high-speed excursion beyond Vne. According to preliminary information supplied by

702-462: Was due to collision with a mountain. Additionally, during training for the World Gliding Championships in New Zealand in 1995, a Nimbus-4 (owned by the French Air Force ) was destroyed in a midair breakup accident. The glider entered a wave cloud, lost control, and broke up at a speed beyond 400 km/h (The never exceed speed, or " Vne " is 285 km/h, and the design dive speed, or " Vd ",

729-515: Was the pilot's excessive use of the elevator control during recovery from an inadvertently entered spin and/or spiral dive during which the glider exceeded the maximum permissible speed, which resulted in the overload failure of the wings at loadings beyond the structure's ultimate design loads." At the time there were three previous accidents worldwide on file with the Federal Bureau of Aircraft Accidents Investigation (BFU), Germany's equivalent of

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