Schempp-Hirth made the maiden flight of the Ventus E electro self launcher Sport fuselage on the Hahnweide airfield 25 April 2024 with pilot Andreas Lutz, manager engineer of the Ventus E project, at the controls.
A first flight was made during the late morning by aerotow. After release, engine was tested successfully at different power levels until full throttle setting. After checking the various data recorded during the first flight in the late afternoon Andreas self-launched the glider for the first time.
Andreas said, “All went very satisfying regarding the engine operations and it was pleasantly smooth in the cockpit. The average climb rate was above 4 m/s average during these flights at full power setting. The only issue I encountered was coming from engine doors and we are now checking all recorded data to fix this. I'm simply happy."
Wolfgang Janowitsch and Tilo Holighaus participated to this special day. As ground witnesses, they particularly noticed the powerful and very smooth acceleration along the pleasant noise level of the new propulsion system.
Schenmp-Hirth project team member Sascha Costabel said, "the team is preparing all paperwork to ensure we can get EASA certification as soon as possible. We are now integrating the Ventus E in our production tool to ensure we can deliver first serial production gliders early 2025. The engineers will then, with our prototyping team, migrate this self-launch system in the Performance fuselage."
The Ventus E was tested in 18m wingspan configuration without water ballast. The Schempp-Hirth team will open the full flight envelope of this new variant during the coming weeks.
The Ventus E is a Ventus-3 Sport Edition which features a with the slim fuselage with the new engin installed.
