Schleicher ASW 12

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The ASW-12 is a single-seat Sailplane of glass composite construction. The wing is shoulder mounted and it has a T-tail. It is essentially a developed production version of the Akaflieg Darmstadt D-36.

History

In 1965 Gerhard Waibel left the Technical University of Darmstadt to enter Alexander Schleicher GmbH & Co as a designer. His first project for his new employer was the ASW-12. This sailplane achieved numerous records and victories in national and international competitions. The exploits of Hans-Werner Grosse in an ASW-12 are legendary, e.g. the 1461 km flight of April 25, 1972 from Lübeck to Biarritz which stood for thirty years as the absolute World Free Distance Record.

Construction

The fuselage of the ASW-12 was extremely slender for its time. It has a retractable landing gear and a two-piece canopy, of greater depth than was the case with the D-36. Each individual fuselage was manufactured - as with the D-36 - in two halves laid-up on positive molds. The construction material was a double sandwich of glass-fibre reinforced composite over balsa wood. This is an unusual and expensive procedure for serial production.

The wing planform is double-tapered. The profile is a modified Wortmann FX 62-K-131 at the wing root and a Wortmann FX 60-126 at the tip. The wings were built in the usual fashion in negative molds, and are also of fiberglass/balsa wood sandwich construction. Water ballasting is not available.

As landing aid the ASW-12 possesses only a parachute brake, an unreliable system that lacks modulation. A number of ASW-12 were retroffited with a second chute to increase the odds of successful landings.

pecifications

aerospecs
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crew=One
capacity=
length m=7.35
length ft=24
length in=1
span m=18.30
span ft=60
span in=1
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width m=
width ft=
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height m=1.50
height ft=4
height in=11
wing area sqm=13.0
wing area sqft=140
swept area sqm=
swept area sqft=
rot area sqm=
rot area sqft=
volume m3=
volume ft3=
aspect ratio= 25.8
wing profile= Wortmann FX 62-K-131 modified and FX 60-126
empty weight kg=324
empty weight lb=713
gross weight kg=430
gross weight lb=946
lift kg=
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max speed kmh=200
max speed mph=125
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glide ratio= ca. 46
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sink rate ms= ca. 0.57
sink rate ftmin= 112

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References

[http://www.sailplanedirectory.com/PlaneDetails.cfm?PlaneID=23 Sailplane Directory]