Zaunkonig: Looking for information

Hello MerlinPete,
D-EBCQ(ex-Vx190,ex-G-ALUA) is the only example to have flown in the UK to my knowledge and is currently stored at the outpost of the ‘Deutsches Museum’ in Schleißheim and D-EBCG at the Aviation Museum in Schwenningen.
I would like to find out more about the accident of Heinz Bär,I have only read accounts on the internet about his fatal crash while doing aerobatic maneuvers-this description is obviously more than vague!
The Technical University in Braunschweig where Prof.Winter developed and built the Zaunkönig is no longer in posession of any of the the drawings.
These were sold by Mrs.Winter after the death of her husband in 1968 to Sweden to a Mr. L. Johansson with the last Zaunkönig V-4(D-EBCG),the V-4 was brought back to Germany by Erwin Biesinger(as was D-EBCQ) where the plans went after that is unclear.
I would contact the Deutsches Museum in Munich and query them.
If you chance upon anything concerning the drawings…pls let me know!
cheers,
Dennis

Doesn’t that actually just mean it has part-time of full time customs services? Dunno, I was just wondering.

Hi JDK,

Yes indeed that was the situation, I believe they could provide Customs service, but it amused me that such a relatively small, and at that time all-grass airfield, with very few foreign registered aircraft ever in evidence, should call itself an “airport”, especially when the mighty LHR was only about 15 miles away. Since then of course, Fairoaks has had a hard runway installed, and now accepts foreign biz-jets and executive types fairly regularly.

Anyway, back to the main thrust of the thread….Though at the time G-ALUA was resident, so too was Desmond St.Cyriens(?sp) Sopwith Pup rebuild, and even at one stage the Reid & Siegrist Desford G-AGOS (IIRC.)

Paul F

Many thanks for all that information. I was interested to read about Henz Bar in particular.

Glad that’s of interest. It’s not widely reported, when reading on the type, IIRC it ws Eric Brown who mentioned it. Have a look also in ‘Wings on my Sleeve’ by Eric Brown.

As G-ALUA she was based at Fairoaks Airport (their description, not mine)…

Doesn’t that actually just mean it has part-time of full time customs services? Dunno, I was just wondering.

G-ALUA

As G-ALUA she was based at Fairoaks Airport (their description, not mine), near Chobham, Surrey in the early/mid 1970’s, I saw her in the hangars there a number of times. She was painted an overall dark silver, with maroon lettering etc. She later left and went to Eire.

Paul F

As no-one has illustrated the type in civil scheme in this thread here’s a scan of a slide from my collection. I have a better static shot I took when G-ALUA was in a silver scheme which I’ll post when I can find it!

Needle rollers on the bigends? have fun….

Many thanks for all that information. I was interested to read about Henz Bar in particular.
I have read that two more aircraft were built in the 1950s but only one was completed. I agree that I will need to make some enquiries in Germany for manuals. The museum who built the Do 335 replica certainly did have one of the aircraft, I will have to find their web site again.
Incidentally, in case any of you are not aware, a great place to find second-hand books is abebooks.com which is a worldwide network of booksellers.

Although I am always working on Rolls-Royce engines, I have to admit that the Zundapp is a masterpiece of fine engineering, in fact it must have been quite expensive to build.

I will add a page about this project on my web site in due course, once I have enough information to put on there!

Happy New Year.

Pete

I rember writting some details in Control Column in the early 70’s on the Zaunkoenig, which i had found in the Aeroplane Spotter. Which was that it was not meant to be able to stall. Also It is in the book “On home-made wings” by Arthur W J G Ord-Hume. It says the fuselage was rebuilt due to rot and the engine 51hp Zundapp was made mainly of magnesium provided a magical 2.1 lb/hp.
Best wishes and Happy new year

Dave

Eric Brown’s account is in ‘Wings of the Weird & Wonderful, Vol.2’, Airlife.

I’ve little to add to the history, except that he says it’s reg was D-YBAR, and it arrived at Farnborough in a crate, no mention of a spare engine. Worth getting a look at the book though!

I wasn’t correcting you JDK, I was up in the loft finding John O. Issacs book, you beat me to it!!

I also have a vague recollection of Neil Williams flying the aicraft!

Septic.

PS. Aren’t you meant to be packing.

What became of G-ALUA?

Back in Germany, rebuilt, new colours, German reg, plus another one (at least…)

Thanks for correcting my vague memories on the refs, Gary.

V interesting, am only a small way into War Prizes the Album (ta Father Xmas) but wasnt one of these machines preserved…now in Germany?

TT

Hi Pete,

One book worth tracking down would be ‘Aeroplane Affair’ by the late John O. Issacs, John was a member of the Hampshire Aeroplane club team that rebuilt G-ALUA, (he went on to own G-ALUA) there are a couple pages dedicated to the aircraft.

The Zundapp as described by John; ” The Sweet-running little Zundapp engine produced by the German Motor Cycle firm was a joy in itself; though until we got the right plugs Viv Bellamy had his moments”.

Another route to try would be Eric Winkle Browns ‘Weird and Wonderful’ he highly praised the Zaunkonig for its superb handling qualities.

I seem to remember Vintage Aircraft Magazine and Control Column featuring the aircraft, I will try to dig these out.

What became of G-ALUA?

Good luck with this fascinating project.

Septic.

Fascinating Pete.

From a rather rusty memory, there were a few built in German in W.W.II, only one of which came to the UK after the war, then went to Ireland, back to the UK and is now in Germany. As you’ve said, it was G-ALUA / VX190, and also acquired a Irish reg too. There’s several articles about it in various magazines, but I can’t recall which for the moment. There is a good article by Eric Brown in (I think) wings of the Luftwaffe. Ironically for an ‘ultra-safe’ aircraft it was the type that Luftwaffe ace Henz Bar was killed in, accounting for one of the W.W.II production – I think the others were destroyed then or thereabouts too. However, just to confuse, there’s at least one more, maybe two built in Germany in the 1980/90s and they were on show at one of the big German trade airshows a few years back. (Aeroplane magazine featured them in their news section, but I’m damnned if I can remember when.) The good news is that the German owned machines were registered, and I’m sure with a bit of digging you should be able to get in touch with the owners, who I’m sure would be delighted to hear from you. The question is when the engine was swapped and what for? (It’s possible that an engine was brought to the UK from one of the unairworthy German wrecks, although the cowlings you have mitigate against that.

HTH.