The Schempp-Hirth HS-3 Nimbus was a prototype glider built by

Klaus Holighaus __NOTOC__ Klaus Holighaus (14 July 1940 – 9 August 1994) was a Glider (sailplane), glider designer, gliding, glider pilot and entrepreneur.Schempp-Hirth Schempp-Hirth Flugzeugbau GmbH is a glider manufacturer based in Kirchheim unter Teck, Germany. History Martin Schempp founded his own company in Göppingen in 1935, with the assistance of Wolf Hirth. The company was initially called "Sport ...

. Strictly speaking, it is not a Schempp-Hirth glider but rather a glider built at Schempp-Hirth. It employed the same

fuselage The fuselage (; from the French language, French ''fuselé'' "spindle-shaped") is an aircraft's main body section. It holds Aircrew, crew, passengers, or cargo. In single-engine aircraft, it will usually contain an Aircraft engine, engine as wel ...

as the Open Class Cirrus and a similar tail, but had an entirely new wing, high-set and in three segments adding up to a span. The

prototype A prototype is an early sample, model, or release of a product built to test a concept or process. It is a term used in a variety of contexts, including semantics, design, electronics, and Software prototyping, software programming. A prototype ...

first flew in January 1969. The Nimbus had a rudder far too small for an aircraft of its size, leading to very unfavourable control characteristics; After the pilot applied full aileron and rudder inputs, the glider continued to fly straight ahead for several seconds before suddenly dropping a wing, requiring full opposite controls to recover. No air brakes were fitted and it was an exceptionally difficult glider to land. It was damaged several times in overshoots. However, it had an exceptionally high performance for the time, with a best

glide ratio In aerodynamics, the lift-to-drag ratio (or L/D ratio) is the lift generated by an aerodynamic body such as an aerofoil or aircraft, divided by the aerodynamic drag caused by moving through air. It describes the aerodynamic efficiency under give ...

of 51:1 at and a minimum sink rate of only . George Moffat of the USA flew the Nimbus in the 1970

World Gliding Championships The World Gliding Championships (WGC) is a gliding competitions, gliding competition held roughly every two years by the FAI Gliding Commission. The dates are not always exactly two years apart, often because the contests are always held in the sum ...

at Marfa,

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

. He had to modify the aircraft's cockpit to fit in, and became the first person to sample its spin characteristics when, in mid-competition, the glider departed from a steep turn into autorotation with asymmetric water ballast. While considering bailing out, he remembered that the spin of the similar Akaflieg Darmstadt D36 could be tamed by rocking the stick back and forth violently. Flexing the wings caused the angle of attack to change and recovery eventually ensued. In spite of these difficulties, Moffat and the Nimbus won the World Championship. The production version of the Nimbus was the Schempp-Hirth Nimbus-2.

Specifications

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Further reading