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Triumph of a Swabian original ESPENLAUB E 5

The Giant Mountains, with the 1,603-meter-high Schneekoppe (Sněžka), form the highest part of the Sudetes. Its ridge, which before the end of the war was the Silesian-Bohemian border, is covered with bogs and boulder fields. Spring 1924: A flight was intended to prove that this mountain massif could be made accessible to glider pilots.
A suitable launch site was found on the 1,400-meter-high silver ridge behind the (then Silesian and now no longer existing) Prince Heinrich Lodge (the term "Baude," originating from Silesia, stands for accommodation hut, mountain inn). At the beginning of March, Gottlob Espenlaub (1900-1972) began preparations for this expedition, which started with the arduous transport of his high-performance glider E 5 by a small group of helpers from the Grunau Gliding School.via the narrow ridge paths to the take-off point, but the necessary wind from the right direction for take-off failed to materialize - for weeks. Aspen leaves with their boisterous nature had to learn patience during the unwanted stay in the mountain hut. Here he would have found the time to reflect on his flying career: Born in Balzholz, a small village at the foot of the Swabian Alb in the shadow of the mighty
Hohenneuffen castle ruins, Espenlaub, the eldest son of a family whose lineage could be traced back to 1523 as shepherds, had been a carpenter in Korntal near Stuttgart since 1915. He learned the trade. At the end of May 1920, having just become unemployed as a journeyman, he read about the announcement for the gliding and sailplane competition from July 15th to August 31st, 1920 in the Rhön region. He immediately applied several times as a helper, but only received written confirmation on July 4th that he had been exceptionally considered for the repair workshop from among the many applicants, provided he could appear at the office of the "Rhön Gliding" association in Gersfeld, at the "Zum Hirsch" inn, by the evening of July 9th at the latest.he had set off early the next morning on a rickety bicycle and, after four days of cycling (and a fall, finally on foot), arrived punctually with civil engineer Oskar Ursinus (1878-1952), publisher of "Flug-Sport" and initiator and organizer of the competition. met up. He had helped set up the camp within two days, then he became the cook's assistant. At the end of the competition, he was of the opinion that he had seen and learned so much that he could design a mid-wing aircraft with a wingspan of about 10 meters and build it in the following months on his parents' property without using any expensive plywood.
With this E 1, he had gone to the Rhön Competition in 1921.
The Technical Commission has deemed the cantilevered wing stable enough, but nevertheless did not approve the aircraft because the excessively heavy fuselage structure made it extremely tail-heavy. However, the jury awarded him an encouragement prize of 500 marks for his innovative design ideas.

In the autumn of 1921, he had stayed on the Wasserkuppe and eventually spent the winter there under the most primitive conditions and in the company of the later Dr. Ing. Alexander Lippisch (1894-1976). He and the scientist had merged into a symbiosis: From him, he had learned everything about the fundamental laws of aerodynamics and flight engineering, while he could apply his craftsmanship and pass on the resulting possibilities. From the remains of Lippisch's cantilever glider, the Falke, and from parts of his f 7, he built a hang glider, which he used for flight experiments. Together, during the winter months, they built the tailless seat glider E 2, with which they only managed a few hops – but these were enough to establish Lippisch's fame as a designer of tailless aircraft. Then he began building a high-performance glider, the E 3, based on the successful Vampyr of the Flannoverians, but with a cantilever wing of 17 m that caused a sensation at the time. with a wingspan of several meters, constructed in two-piece (instead of the usual three-piece) design.
The glider, which he had to finish building in the Fulda artillery barracks, was the sensation of the Rhön Gliding Competition in 1922, viewed with skepticism. He himself—unfamiliar with rudder-controlled flight—had attempted to test-fly it on the second day of the competition, which failed with a broken wheel. The later Dr. Ing. Martin Schrenk (1896–1934)—his fellow countryman and friend—calculated the spars and fittings of the roughly constructed giant bird a few days later and completed the aircraft test with the first flight. Subsequently,
he made a series of successful flights with the machine and ultimately won 1st prize for the greatest flight distance with 2.8 km and 3rd prize for the total flight time with the 919 seconds the E 3 was in the air. He himself, Espenlaub continued to muse, was from this point on much lamented- hobbyists became the archetype of the self-builder. In mid-September 1922, the
Wasserkuppe saw a group of young, interested Americans. Espenlaub had chartered his E-3 to one of them. The three dollars he charged per flight were worth a fortune during the inflation period, which he had used it to buy provisions and building materials for a second winter on the Wasserkuppe. In an ice-cold tent, he built two high-performance gliders with wingspans of 12 meters and elegant oval fuselages: the E4 with a completely plywood-covered fuselage and running wheels, and the E5 with skids, whose fuselage was partially fabric-covered to save costs.
At Pentecost 1923, the wiry chairman of the youth wing of the German Gliding Association had German fighter pilot Ledermann, the E 5 as a prospective buyer, already dismantled during the test flight. It however, it could be rebuilt in time for the Rhön competition. Ledermann and his Berlin group, which also included the hang gliding pioneer Dr. Martin Sultan, who fell in Israel after the Second World War, were good customers.
An E 5, which they acquired for the Rhön 1924, was destroyed there, and another, purchased for participation in the Rossitten competition in 1925, was also lost there in a crash. For the first Austrian glider competition, held in October 1923 on the Stockerau Waschberg near Vienna, for which some of the best Rhön pilots had also registered, Espenlaub had traveled with his two aircraft. The entire event suffered not only from the unfavorable weather, but especially from the loss of the E4, which an Austrian pilot smashed to pieces during a spectacular landing amidst spectators. There he made the decision to only make crashes himself from now on. Too early in the morning, he launched himself on the E 5 for his first real glider flight, which ended happily after 3.5 km and earned him 2nd prize in the cross-country flight. From that point on, Espenlaub only flew himself. Meanwhile, further events had been brewing that brought about changes. The Federal Government  A German aviator in Hirschberg (now Jelenia Góra) in Silesia aspired to establish his own gliding school, for which a suitable site was found and a hangar built in the neighboring Grunau (now Jezöw Sudecki). Espenlaub had been invited to take over the development and operation of the school. After inspecting the seemingly suitable locations, he settled in the autumn of 1923 with his Swabian colleague, Edmund Schneider (1901-1968) – who founded the aircraft manufacturing company of the same name in Grunau (now Plant 2 of PZL-Flugzeugbau Bielsko) in 1928 – at the foot of the Giant Mountains and had first designed and built a training glider, the E 6. With his E 5 he was able to many test flights from the Grunau slopes until that late autumn day when, far from the upslope wind in the Hirschberg valley, he found lift in a Föhn wind and – unknowingly – made the first, almost an hour-long gliding flight on the Lange Welle. Now, in the mountain hut, he eagerly awaited a new opportunity.
On Saturday, May 10, 1924, Espenlaub's long wait finally came to an end. In the following Wednesday edition of the Upper Lusatian Village Newspaper, founded in 1855, a report from Hirschberg appeared: "The first glider flight from the Giant Mountains ridge: The well-known glider pilot Espenlaub performed a brilliant feat on Saturday. He had been staying at the Prince Heinrich Mountain Hut since Easter, waiting for favorable winds for his gliding flights... Finally, on Saturday morning, the longed-for north wind arrived... and Espenlaub immediately ventured... a longer flight." He climbed up, flew about 50 meters over the ridge path and then down into the Hirschberg Valley, passing the large pond on the right. After 32 minutes, the daring pilot landed near the village of Schildau, about 16 km from the  launch site was removed. In reality, Espenlaub covered a greater distance because he could not fly in a straight line due to the wind conditions. The altitude difference during his flight was 1,100 meters. On a subsequent second attempt, Espenlaub got caught in the mountain pines surrounding the lodge and significantly damaged the fuselage of his glider. Robert Schwede (1897-1980), a member of the air police who had been seconded to Grunau to support the German Air Force, participated in the repair work in the Grunau hangar. was and had taken up his work at the school at the beginning of March 1924. Schwede, who in the following years truly established the school operations in Grunau and also designed and built the necessary school equipment himself, recalls:
"We immediately got to work on the repairs, and in a short time a new hull was created, although its main frame was somewhat asymmetrical. When I placed Espenlaub on it- When I mentioned it, he said, laughing, that nobody would notice it at 1,000 meters altitude. I was amazed at his resourcefulness in being able to use everything for building his airplanes, from window fittings to bicycle spare parts. He built simply and primitively – quickly and cheaply. I viewed the technical execution of these machines with a certain amount of suspicion, where, for example, instead of secured cotter pins, bent nails were used. It remained incomprehensible to me how they could be airworthy. My many years of experience in German aviation technology seemed to have corrupted me. Schwede never tired of showing Espenlaub the way to an adequate quality standard – even after Espenlaub had terminated his contract with the German Air Force due to increasing orders and rented his own workshop. For his 16-meter wingspan high-performance glider, Lua, which was equipped with a three-part wing and trapezoidal exterior components, Schwede built an E 5 fuselage just to demonstrate what it should look like in terms of manufacturing quality. Espenlaub also accepted many suggestions. For the E 5, there was now a standard three-section wing with trapezoidal wing sections and a wingspan of 15 meters. And the constructive feature of another Li/a fuselage—three pylons on which the wing could be mounted in a raised position—was used by Espenlaub for almost all of its never sufficient financial means. And at many airshows he was the attraction, like on March 7, 1926, when he flew his E 5 in the medieval Hessian district town of Melsungen. The Casseler Tageblatt reported under the headline "Espenlaub crashes in Melsungen":
"The well-known glider pilot held an exhibition flight in Melsungen on Sunday. Several thousand spectators had gathered on the height of the Galgenberg. The flight was to begin near the three acacia trees. The aircraft was assembled on a stubble field. Shortly before 3:30, Espenlaub gave the pullers on the rubber rope the signal to release. After barely five meters, the aircraft rose lightly as a bird high into the air." Taking advantage of the rather strong northwest wind, the pilot initially flew towards about one kilometer from the city, then described a wide arc and landed after about three minutes near the whale. of the Pfieffrain. The measured distance was about three kilometers long. The beautiful weather and the favorable wind persuaded the daring aviator to make a second flight, which was to prove fatal. The members of the rowing club, who had volunteered to operate and secure the area, launched the aircraft again from the old launch site.
This time Espenlaub flew almost to the houses on the Lindenberg, described a wide arc there, flew towards the Fulda River, and from there, with the wind at his back, headed for the first landing site. The fruit trees standing on the slope here must have caused him to veer a little too far west. He tried to land before the edge of the forest but never came down. Now he wanted to fly over the embankment to land in the meadows of the Fulda valley below. However, the aircraft was already too close to the ground. While flying over the first group of fir trees, one wing clipped several fir tops and decapitated them. The aircraft then spun around and plummeted. A major accident would undoubtedly have occurred, as the road running below – just a few meters behind – was the railway overpass lies probably about 30 meters lower. And then came a fall that no pilot has ever experienced. The crashing aircraft landed right in the middle of the rather heavy telegraph line, so that the pilot's seat came right into the line, while the wings caught on both wires. These stopped the fall and the aircraft. Thus, the enthusiastically congratulated pilot hung between heaven and earth and – despite the accident – ​​soon regained his sense of humor. Unfortunately, the aircraft was badly damaged in the process. The left elevator broke, and the right wing was badly damaged in several places. The left wing also took its share of the damage. The pilot himself suffered no injuries. Only when a ladder was brought forward was he able to leave his airy seat, greeted joyfully by the crowd. With the help of the large ladder from the fire department, which was soon on the scene, the aircraft was brought down. A few weeks later, it was the Kasseler Neueste Nachrichten that, along with the sensational photo of a broken E 5 between the two spires of Kassel's St. Martin's Church and the pilot descending on a rope ladder, reported on another stunt by Espenlaub. According to this newspaper report, the plane had taken off from Dörnberg Hill, intending to land at noon in front of a crowd of thousands near the State Library.
However, a sudden gust of wind had blown it over the building. The crowds of people who had streamed through the Upper Alley behind the plane saw it hanging as a pile of debris between the church steeples.
Espenlaub's statement:
"The flight went brilliantly, but I couldn't avoid the gust without damaging the monument. I drifted and looked for a landing spot. The power grid of the 'Great Kassel' prevented me from doing so. The only way out was through the wind. Expecting to lose the wings, I landed quickly; the one broke, but remained hanging. Part of the other drifted on over the town.
Then I left the apparatus, which, by the way, will be ready to fly again in two to three days, on the rope ladder I'd carried with me since my Melsungen adventure, where I had to wait for hours for a fire department ladder. Amidst never-ending cheers, three well-known Kassel pilots then carried it on their shoulders to the headquarters of the Central German Flying Association.
These were stories that made names legendary and its products bestsellers, even if the tower landing at noon on April 1st turned out to be a brilliant prank by a newspaper editor.
The name Espenlaub stood for the extraordinary. Moreover, its bearer had an intuitive talent for effective public relations. Thus, his name was emblazoned in a respectable size on all his products. However, no drawings of these constructions existed. Everything was made according to rough sketches on workshop floors and walls or from memory. No wonder, then, that the models built in small series, such as the E 5, differed more or less. Unfortunately, it is no longer possible to determine how many E 5s were actually built, but it must have been quite a number. They flew, even if they were sometimes not exactly masterpieces in their workshop execution.
Successful for many years – so ingenious were they as a design. The Düsseldorf Aero Club still entered the Rhön competition in 1927 with an E 5, and a Würzburg glider pilot bought another aircraft from the stock of the local flying school in the same year. It saw many more flights. The E 5 remained the original Swabian's most successful glider design.
Espenlaub's miraculous crash in Melsungen—which occurred quite early in his multifaceted and constructive career—is said to have been the beginning of his profound devotion to God, which he lived out to the point of the extraordinary after the war.
Be that as it may, his small aircraft manufacturing operation grew into a large aircraft repair shop during the Second World War. He thus gained more prestige than any other participant in the first Rhön competition in 1920, where everyone knew everyone else. Even after the war, he designed, built, and flew aircraft—unconventional ones, of course!
And—thankfully, Espenlaub remained true to himself, as he had with the E 5—still without any blueprints and without the necessary licenses!

Technical Description
Wing Cantilevered construction made of wood, single-spar, with torsionally rigid plywood leading edge, otherwise fabric-covered. Profile cross-section similar to Gö 535. 12-meter
wing with rectangular outline, two-piece, wing chord throughout 1.30 meters; 15-meter wing with trapezoidal wingtips, three-piece, wing chord in the rectangular section 1.00 meter. Standard, unbalanced ailerons made of wood with fabric covering.
Fuselage: Wooden superstructure. Oval cross-section. Bow and stern made of frames and stringers, with load-bearing plywood planking; hull center section as a frame-stringer structure with diagonal triangular braces and rectangular cross-sections, all mounted horizontally; fabriccovering.
Tailplane: Cantilevered superstructure made of wood. Pendulum elevator, single-spar, with plywood leading edge, otherwise fabric-covered. Vertical stabilizer on the 12-meter version (and initially on the first 15-meter version) with fin and rudder, fabric
covered. 15-meter version with undamped, aerodynamically balanced rudder (later mounted on a small, recessed, plywood-planked mounting fin integrated into the fuselage stern). Rudder assembly with plywood nose, otherwise fabric-covered.
Landing gear: Central ash wood skids (designed as "scatter skids") under the bow and stern.
Paint: In the standard version, all materials are natural, coated with clear varnish.