Contrary to the methods used by the

Reich Air Ministry The Ministry of Aviation (german: Reichsluftfahrtministerium, abbreviated RLM) was a government department during the period of Nazi Germany (1933–45). It is also the original name of the Detlev-Rohwedder-Haus building on the Wilhelmstrass ...

(RLM) for the allocation of aircraft designations, the designers and manufacturers of sailplanes and gliders in Germany enjoyed the freedom of choosing their own designations for their products up until 1945. Thus a bird name like ''Habicht'' could be used, or a number combined with two or more letters, stemming from the designer's or factory's name, such as

DFS DFS may refer to: Brands and enterprises * Dancer Fitzgerald Sample, advertising agency, now Saatchi & Saatchi * DFS Furniture, a furniture retailer in the United Kingdom and Ireland * DFS Group (Duty Free Shoppers), Hong Kong * DFS Program Excha ...

, RRG or

Göppingen Göppingen ( Swabian: ''Geppenge'' or ''Gebbenga'') is a town in southern Germany, part of the Stuttgart Region of Baden-Württemberg. It is the capital of the district Göppingen. Göppingen is home to the toy company Märklin, and it is the b ...

. The RLM only assigned them for every design a separate number, which obviously served the same purposes as that used with aircraft, namely to provide a common basis for an exchange of drawings in the event of an intended production under license by other firms or by clubs, or even single persons and to secure the provision of spare parts. A rigid system of rules for the form and order of drawings was applied. Whereas RLM aircraft designations were prefixed by the number 8, glider references began with "108-", for example 108-53 referred to the

DFS Habicht The DFS ''Habicht'' (German: "Hawk") is an unlimited aerobatic sailplane that was designed in 1936 by Hans Jacobs with support provided by the Deutsche Forschungsanstalt für Segelflug. Four planes were made available for the Olympic Games of 1 ...

. In a relaxation of the regulations regarding allocation of aircraft designations, the designers and manufacturers of sailplanes and gliders in Germany enjoyed the freedom of choosing their own designations for their products up until 1945, but some of the more common aircraft were issued RLM designations in the 108 series. ;108-10:

Schneider Grunau 9 The ESG Grunau 9, later known as the ESG 29 and post-1933 as the DFS 108-10, was one of the first primary gliders, built in Germany from the late 1920s. It was widely sold. Design and development The Grunau 9 was a German single seat trainer ...

- primary glider (1929) ;108-11: RRG Zögling 33 - primary glider (1933) ;108-14: DFS Schulgleiter SG.38 - standard basic gliding trainer (1938) ;108-15: RRG Zögling 12m - primary glider (1934) ;108-16: Weber EW-2 - four-seat high-performance sailplane ;108-21: Hirth Hi 21 - two-seat sailplane ;108-22:

Hirth Hi-20 MoSe The Hirth Hi 20 MoSe was a German motor glider designed in the late 1930s. Based on the Göppingen Gö 4 side-by-side seat training glider, it had a foldaway propeller, column-mounted above the fuselage and shaft-driven by a small internal p ...

- (for Motorsegler = motor glider); motorized glider ;108-29: Fliege IIa - primary glider (1935) ;108-30: DFS Kranich II - two-seat sailplane (1935) ;108-47:Schleicher / Jacobs Rhönadler - single-seat high-performance sailplane (1932) ;108-48: Dittmar Condor I - high-performance sailplane (1932) ;108-49:Schneider /

DFS Grunau Baby II The Schneider Grunau Baby was a single-seat sailplane first built in Germany in 1931, with some 6,000 examples constructed in some 20 countries. It was relatively easy to build from plans, it flew well, and the aircraft was strong enough to han ...

- glider (1932) ;108-50: Jacobs Rhönbussard - single-seat high-performance sailplane (1933) ;108-51:Jacobs / Schweyer / DFS Rhönsperber - single-seat high-performance sailplane (1935) ;108-53:

- single-seat acrobatics sailplane (1936) ;108-56: Dittmar Condor II - single-seat high-performance sailplane (1935) ;108-58:Hirth Göppingen Gö 1 Wolf - sailplane (1935) ;108-59:Hirth Göppingen Gö 3 Minimoa - high-performance sailplane (1935) ;108-60:Jacobs /

DFS Reiher The DFS Reiher (in English ''Heron'') was a single seat competition glider designed in Germany by Hans Jacobs and first flown in 1937. The type won the last two German Rhön gliding championships before the start of World War II. Six were facto ...

- single-seat high-performance sailplane (1937) ;108-61:Hütter / Schempp-Hirth Göppingen Gö 4 - two-seat sailplane (1937) ;108-62: Schwarzwald-Flugzeugbau Donaueschingen Strolch - high-performance sailplane ;108-63: Akaflieg München Mü 13D Merlin - high-performance sailplane (1936) ;108-64: Schwarzwald-Flugzeugbau Donaueschingen Ibis ;108-65: Dittmar Condor III - single-seat high-performance sailplane (1938) ;108-66:

Schneider Grunau Baby III The Schneider Grunau Baby was a single-seat sailplane first built in Germany in 1931, with some 6,000 examples constructed in some 20 countries. It was relatively easy to build from plans, it flew well, and the aircraft was strong enough to han ...

- sailplane (1938) ;108-67: Hütter Hü 17 - sailplane (1937) ;108-68:Jacobs / Schweyer /

DFS Weihe The DFS Weihe (English: ''Harrier'') is a German single-seat, high-wing, 18 metre wingspan, high-performance glider that was designed by Hans Jacobs in 1937-38. Design and development Jacobs designed the Weihe to be the pre-eminent performanc ...

- high-performance single-seat sailplane (1938) ;108-70:Jacobs / DFS Olympia Meise - high-performance single-seat sailplane (1939) ;108-72: Akaflieg München Mü 17 Merle - high-performance sailplane (1939) ;108-74:FVA Aachen / Schmetz FVA 10b Rheinland - high-performance sailplane

Gliders with unknown or not issued RLM designator

* Akaflieg Darmstadt D28b Windspiel * Akaflieg Darmstadt D-30 Cirrus * Akaflieg Darmstadt D31 * Akaflieg München Mü10 Milan * Blessing Kolibri-B * DFS Fafnir II *

DFS Präsident DFS may refer to: Brands and enterprises * Dancer Fitzgerald Sample, advertising agency, now Saatchi & Saatchi * DFS Furniture, a furniture retailer in the United Kingdom and Ireland * DFS Group (Duty Free Shoppers), Hong Kong * DFS Program Exc ...

* FAG Chemnitz C 11 * FAG Esslingen E 3 * FV Aachen FVA 11 Eifel * FV Aachen FVA 9 * Akaflieg Berlin B 5 * Akaflieg Berlin B 6 * Akaflieg Berlin B 8 * Akaflieg Hannover AFH 4 * Akaflieg Stuttgart FS-16 * Akaflieg Stuttgart FS-18 * Grunau 7 Moazagotl * Grunau 8 * Grunau Commodore * Gumpert Schwalbe II *

Horten H.II The Horten H.II Habicht (Hawk) was a German flying wing glider (sailplane), glider built in Germany in 1935. Four, including one flown mostly as a motorglider, were built. One of the gliders was used to test the aerodynamics of a prototype World ...

* Horten H.III *

Hütter Hü 28 Hutter or Hütter is a surname of German origin that refers to: * Gardi Hutter (born 1953), Swiss clown-comedian, author, actress and cabaretartist * Gero Hütter (born 1968), German hematologist, known for performing a bone marrow transplant on a ...

* Raab R2 After the Second World War, gliding was prohibited in Germany, but when the sport began again in 1951, glider types were allocated a Geräte-Nummer (Type Approval number). New designs were given numbers from 101, but the following older types used their RLM designation as the Geräte-Nummer:Luftfahrt-Bundesamt list of gliders

References

{{reflist Germany transport-related lists World War II aircraft of Germany Military of Nazi Germany

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany lies between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the sou ...