Green Speed Cup Final: a Mix of Well-Flown Aircraft

Dean Sigler Electric Powerplants, GFC, Sustainable Aviation Leave a Comment

Day three of the Green Speed Cup in Strausberg, Germany brought few surprises other than how fuel efficient all of the aircraft turned out to be, especially considering they are all powered by gasoline engines.  Normally, this would demonstrate that even a light machine uses large amounts of fuel, but this contest demonstrated the benefits of good design and careful piloting. The Akaflieg Darmstadt D39 flown by Holger Massow came in first, winning the last two days outright.  Second went to Hans-Peter Ortwein flying a Stemme SV-10T, and third, perhaps surprisingly, to the only two-stroke powered machine, a Technoflug Piccolo, a fixed-gear, high-wing motorglider with an engine sticking up behind the wing.  The Piccolo was flown by Werner Scholz. Two Valentin Taifuns came in fourth and fifth, and a Stemme S6 took sixth place.  Two Scheibe SF-25s, a B and C model, took seventh and eighth places respectively.  A Fournier RF-5 captured ninth place and another SF-25-C rounded out the …