Sailplanes
The gull wing was first seen on a glider when the Weltensegler flew in 1921. Its wings were externally braced and featured swept-back wingtips. After the aircraft broke up, killing its pilot, the design feature stayed out of popular use. The gull wing made a resurgence in 1930 with Alexander Lippisch's record-breaking Fafnir. Lippisch used the configuration for its increased wingtip clearance and the ill-founded belief it improved stability in turns. However, studies have shown that normal gull wing configurations have significantly less severe and more easily recoverable stalls. Inverted gull wings show the opposite stall behaviour, but both normal and inverted gull wings impede L/D and climb performance. The true success of the Fafnir's gull wing lay primarily in its aesthetic value; the gull wing would be a staple of the high-performance sailplanes of the time, until the 1950s.
Notable gull wing sailplanes:
- Bowlus Senior Albatross
- DFS Habicht
- DFS Kranich
- DFS Reiher
- Göppingen Gö 3 Minimoa
- Lawrence Tech IV "Yankee Doodle")
- Lippisch Fafnir
- Ross RS-1 Zanonia
- Schweyer Rhönsperber
- Slingsby Kite
- Weltensegler
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