Schweizer SGS 1-29 - Background

Background

In the mid-1950s the SGS 1-23 was in full production and through successive models was performing very well in competition. By 1957 the development of fiberglass-reinforced plastic had an impact on the production of many sporting goods, such as boats and fishing rods. Schweizer Aircraft thought it was only a matter of time before a fiberglass sailplane was produced. This concern was borne out in 1965, when two German fiberglass sailplanes were entered in the world championships.

Schweizer Aircraft evaluated the use of fiberglass for sailplane construction and rejected it for several reasons:

  • The high cost of demonstrating to the Federal Aviation Administration that this new material could safely be used for aircraft primary structure.
  • Problems with crash resistance of fiberglass structures in high impact accidents.
  • The unknown service life of fiberglass.
  • The high degree of manual labor required to do fiberglass lay-ups at that time and the associated cost.

The company decided to concentrate on getting the best performance from the material that it knew best, aluminum.

Schweizer created several design studies of new sailplanes in the mid-1950s. These included:

  • Schweizer 2-27
  • Schweizer 7-28
  • Schweizer SGS 1-29

Of these, only the SGS 1-29 proceeded to prototype stage.

Read more about this topic:  Schweizer SGS 1-29

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