IN THE LOGBOOKIN THE LOGBOOK
January 2018FLYPAST 105
Best
for Both
Dave Unwin samples the Luftwaffe’s Bestmann trainer, designed to
benefi t students and instructors
O
ne aspect of the Bestmann
that really stands out is that
although it was designed
during the late 1930s as a trainer
- it has side-by-side seating and
an enclosed cockpit. I cannot think
of any other training monoplane
of the era that has this same
configuration.
The company, founded by German
naval pilot Carl Clemens Bücker, is
best known for the Jungmann and
Jungmeister biplanes. Bücker
established Svenska Aero
AB (the original SAAB) in
Sweden in 1921. It
was effectively a division of Heinkel,
as Germany was banned from
manufacturing warplanes under the
Treaty of Versailles of 1919.
Bücker teamed up with Swedish
designer Anders J Andersson and
the pair moved to Germany, to
create Bücker Flugzeugbau in 1932.
The prototype Bü 181 Bestmann had
its maiden flight in February 1939
and the following year was adopted
by the Luftwaffe as its basic trainer.
The bulk of the 3,400 Bü 181s
were built at Rangsdorf, south of
Berlin, but in 1942 production was
transferred to
Fokker
at
Schiphol, Amsterdam, where 708
were completed.
During April 1937 the SAAB
organisation was revived in Sweden.
Two years later Andersson returned
to his homeland and joined the
SAAB design team. In 1945 his
Safir light aircraft emerged, clearly
showing its Bestmann lineage.
The aircraft I’m about to fly is
Sierra-Uniform, which maintains the
Swedish connection; it was one of
125 built under licence by Hagglund
& Söner AB between 1944 and 1946
for the Swedish Air Force as the
Sk 25.
At the time of writing it was owned
by Peter Holloway who was most
closely associated with his
Above left
The distinctive heavy canopy framing
of the Bu 181. ALL DARREN HARBAR