FlyPast 01.2018

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