FlyPast 01.2018

(Barré) #1

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
Free download pdf