Solair II - Team members and sponsors
Thanks go to the following persons for their active
participation in the Solair II project:
- Annabell, for her tireless attempts to organize
the chaos,
- Mark Schleifer, for mold making and design,
- Michael Dachselt, precision engineering and detail
solutions,
- Alec Holtkamp,
- Daniel Lippert,
- Denis Ahrens,
- Gunnar Erdmann,
- Holger Rochelt,
- Tillmann Paul (who managed to escape to Hawaii in
time!)
Only the commitment and capabilities of every one of them -
particularly at shaping and building the molds and structural
parts - has made the present success possible after only 4 months
of building time.
Many suggestions and ideas came from other people too,
especially from well-known model airplane experts. For their
support, thanks go to:
- Ulf Herder for designing the motors, which were
built by Plettenberg,
- Hannes Delago, who designed the highly efficient
propellers, and Franz Weißgerber, for CNC
milling the propeller molds,
- Bernd Bossmann, world champion with his solar
powered flying wing, for laminating those propellers,
- Plexiglas Weiß in Munich made the cockpit hood
from thin 2 mm Plexiglas, which subsequently was
coated absolutely scratch-proof by KRD
Sicherheitstechnik in Gesthacht,
- Schubert provided the rocket driven recovery
system by BRS, the best at the moment,
- Schwille Elektronik build the entire energy
control complete with LC displays - just like 15 years
ago for the Solair I,
- the Umweltbehörde Hamburg for generous financial
support,
- all LC display flight instruments are by Peter
Bräuninger,
- the motor controller is a new development by Albrecht
Elektronik of Freising and Ing.-Büro Schoder
of Graisbach,
- PCE-Solartechnik of Achern built the solar charge
controller Optimizer which features an efficiency of
98 % and more,
- Sanyo donated the NiCd batteries and the specific
know-how of C.D. Ludwig,
- the contact elements with extremely low resistance and
high current rating are by Multikontakt,
- Bakelite supplied their L 20 - currently the
best laminating epoxy resin, Interglas supplied
the glass fabric,
- Eurocomposites, besides supplying honeycomb
materials, donated the invaluable know-how of Mike
Rudbach,
- Mr. Maier of the Röhm laboratory supplied
- just like 1984 for the Musclair 1 - a special type
of Rohacell, this time for the solar generators,
- Klaus Döhring, the "King of Films" at Höchst,
wound plastic films in every thickness required for the
production of perfect surfaces,
- Dipl.-Ing. Herbert Funke, research assistant at
the University of Paderborn LKL, carried out the
structural calculations and design. He made it possible
for us to achieve a structural weight which does not
exceed that of the payload. Herbert was also responsible
for the documentation (which this online version is based
upon). He will gladly send a printed version to anyone
who's interested - just send an email with your postal
address to "jfunk1@hrz.nw.uni-paderborn.de"
- Elmar Rüthing designed the gearbox complete with
variable pitch and folding mechanism as part of his
engineering degree dissertation at the University of
Paderborn LKL,
- Jakob Hingst of Sigri for his valuable
tips, informations and many years of advice regarding the
use of carbon materials.
- Hans Gochermann's valuable suggestions stimulated
the development of a new soldering and cell connecting
process,
- Netherland's airfoil guru Boermann designed - with
Dirks' consent - the Solair II wing airfoil
based upon the DG 800 outer wing airfoil, combining
very low drag with excellent low speed characteristics.
The most sincere gratitude is due to all the families
involved. The enormous amount of time which many of the helpers
spent on our project demanded great sacrifices from their
families too. At this point I'd like to express my deepest
gratitude for their patience and understanding.
Hamburg, July 1996
Günter Rochelt
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Delago - Jan 19, 1997)