experimental aircraft, 1 or 2 built, F/F 23rd May 1912,
cantilever monoplane, iron metal, cunard design
Historical Data:
The Reissner Ente is not really a Junkers design, but it was influenced by the ideas of Hugo Junkers and most parts of
it were built at the Junkers Research Institutes at Aachen and ICO
at Dessau. The principle ideas for this aircraft came from Prof. Hans Reissner, who was
engaged at the Technical University of Aachen with practical flying experiments in 1908. Initial experiments were performed
on a Voisin biplane, which underwent intensive modifications. But when this aircraft crashed in 1909, Reissner decided
to develope an own aircraft. Hugo Junkers, who had already observed the Voisin flights, joint Hans Reissner and advised him
to use an all metal construction for his aircraft. Reissner designed a duck configuration monoplane with a latticed fuselage.
According to Junkers' advise, the wings were constructed with corrugated sheet metal panels, which were slightly convex.
The covering of the wing was folded in zigzag course.
Hugo Junkers took over the responsiblity for the wing production of Reissner's Ente at his ICO facilities.
Initial discussions at Dessau were started in February 1910. It took two years to finish the construction work
of Reissner's Ente. In February 1912 the aircraft was completed at Aachen and on May, 23rd 1912 it was first flown
by Robert Gsell. Between August and November 1912 the Reissner Ente was presented at Berlin
Johannisthal by Reissner and Gsell. In late 1912 the aircraft was returned to Aachen, where Lucien Hild
crashed with the Ente on January, 27th 1913 due to stall and was killed.
It is not exactly known, if a second Ente was built after the Hild crash or if the remainings of the first Ente
were rebuilt. Nevertheless the Reissner Ente was back into the air during 1913 in a modified outlook. Instead
of the primary design, the new Ente now got a textile covering around the fuselage tubes and four
tail units were mounted below the rear wing instead of the prior single horizontal stabilizer at the top of the aircraft.
During this time Junkers and Reissner seperated from each other. Junkers turned towards the questions
of aerodynamical and constructional aspects of aircraft designs, which finally led to his first own aircraft,
the Junkers J1 in 1915.
Technical Data:
Aircraft
year
engine
length in m
span in m
wing area im sqm
net weight in kg
payload in kg
seats
speed in km/h
range in km
Reissner Ente
1912
Argus (52kW)
n/a
n/a
n/a
n/a
n/a
1 pilot
n/a
n/a
Further Reading at other Sites: Junkers.de (in German, interesting images)
Orpheus (textes about Hans Reissner)
RWTH Aachen (textes about Hans Reissner)
Updated:
25th December 2002
The Hugo Junkers Homepage at http://www.junkers.de.vu
� Horst Zoeller, Germany, July 1996
[email protected]
visitors since October 2000
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