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Ever since he can remember Michael
Greiner has wanted to design sailplanes. That’s what he told me when
we sat down for an interview at the Alexander Schleicher sailplane factory
in Germany. As a young man he loved to study another Alexander’s
work - aviation pioneer Alexander Lippisch’s beautiful futuristic
drawings of flying wing sailplanes that pushed the boundaries ofaerodynamics
back in the 1920s.
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Michael Greiner was born in 1974 in Erlangen, Germany, and as a
kid he built model sailplanes, as did Lippisch. Today, Michael is
the youngest designer employed by a major racing sailplane manufacturer.
His first project at Schleicher was an 18 metre versions of the
Standard Class ASW-28 (making the glider flyable at two spans, a
first for Schleicher). There is something special about this deign:
The break point is far inboard - the 15 metre wingspan tips are
2.25 metres long and the 18 metre wingspan tips are 3.73 metres
long. This allows wing geometry in both spans to be optimised for
low induced drag and best flight characteristics.
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The 18 Metre version of the ASW-28.
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An Invitation
As a member of the Caesar Creek Soaring Club near Dayton, Idaho, I have
got to know John Murray, a club member and Schleicher’s US representative.
At a dinner at his home shortly before the 2001 SSA Convention in Indianapolis,
I had the privilege to sit next to Schleicher’s Martin Heide, designer
of the ASH-26 and ASH-25. (The “H” in ASH stands for Heide.)
Martin was in the US for the convention and after we got to talking, he
invited me to visit the factory. I didn’t know then that my wife
Janet would be invited to speak at a conference in Frankfurt, early in
September 2001. Sure, I’d like to go along with her - I could visit
the factory.
Fast forward to September 2001. Two days after landing at the Frankfurt
airport, I was on the autobahn making my way to the Schleicher factory
in the tiny village of Poppenhausen. Touring the factory, seeing Martin
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