Mü13 ‘Merlin’ (1936)

This sailplane was designed by Egon Scheibe and Kurt Schmidt. Fuselage and tail was the same as the "Milan". The wings had flaps the whole length and these were connected to the ailerons. This gave the plane very good behavior for thermal flights. With a gliding ratio of 28 it was one of the best high performance sailplanes of this period.. Two planes were built in the beginning the "Merlin" and the "Atalante".The former was used by Hans Wiesenhöfer in the first  "Zielflug" in southern Germany and for Alp flights. The "Atalante" which Kurt Schmitt had almost built by himself became one of the most famous and best sailplane in the thirties. The 17th "Rhön" was won convincingly, including a flight of 252 km from Wasserkuppe to Trier. The Mü13  in version D was taken over for serie production by the "Schwarzwald-Flugzeugbau Wilhelm Jehle" in Donaueschingen. The Mü13 E it was built as a two-seater from which the famous "Bergfalke" was developed. In 1937 the "Merlin" was equpped with a Köcher-Kröber M4 engine (18 hp) and was named Mü13 M Motormerlin. Max speed was 125 km/h , landing speed 45 km/h.