Reissner Ente

Experimental Cunard Aircraft, First Flight: 23 May 1912, one or two built
designed by Prof. Hans Reissner, built by Research Institute Junkers at University of Aachen

Historical Background:

The Reissner Ente is not 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 Junkers+Co. 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

Weblinks:

Junkers.de - a 45 sec Video of the Reissner-Ente
Wikipedia.de - Entry about Hans Jacob Reissner

Literature:

Rüdiger Haude,
Grenzflüge: Politische Symbolik der Luftfahrt vor dem Ersten Weltkrieg
Böhlau Verlag, Weimar, 2007
ISBN 9783412200596

last updated 25 Dec 2002