Series production of the Kranich (Crane) took place in the aircraft division of Karl Schweyer AG in Mannheim. The two-seater was, in its version 2, the most widely built two-seat glider in Germany from 1935 to 1939. Several hundred examples were built; exact numbers are not known.
On 11 October 1940 Erich Klöckner in a Kranich achieved the record height in a glider of 11,460 m. Because it occurred in wartime, the altitude record was not recognised by the Allied occupying powers, and Klöckner only received official recognition by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) in the late 1990s.[1]This record height was only exceeded ten years after the flight by the American Bill Ivan's during a similar scientific program in the Sierra Nevada. In 1942 30 Kranichs were built by the Swedish manufacturer AB Flygplan in Norrköping, and delivered to the Swedish Air Force
for training purposes. These machines were given the military designation Flygplan Se 103.
Between 1950 and 1952 50 examples of a slightly modified copy of the Kranich II were built in Poland, known as the SZD-C Żuraw (żuraw is Kranich in Polish = "crane").
After the war, Jacobs designed the Kranich III, a new development very different from its predecessors. It was developed and produced at the Focke-Wulf aircraft factory in Bremen. The first flight was on 1 May 1952, piloted by Hanna Reitsch. Thirty-seven were built. In 1942 30 Kranichs were built by the Swedish manufacturer AB Flygplan in Norrköping, and delivered to the Swedish Air Force
I always wanted to build a 6mtr glider and as I have always liked vintage gliders thats the area I went, The Kranich 2 is a good looking scale glider and is also a twin seater glider, which gives it more caractor I think, I also loved the canopy section which is made from metal tubes and this appealed to me . Now I have chosen my glider to build now to see of there were any kits about, and yes there was in Germany but far to exspencive at over 2000 euro's and then I thought I would ask if I could buy the plans from him , and the reply was NO.
As tihs was the only plan around that I knew about I thought I would push my luck and look into the same country and German publishers, and bingo I found one but only quarter scale, but that was better then nothing, I at firts just was emailing back and thorth making sure this was the right plan for the glider I wanted, this was not easy as they only understood little bits of English and I did not know German at all, I left it for about 8 days and to my surprise the publishers had sent the plans to me with out even ordering them, this was great it then took me two days trying to pay for them bt it all got done. Now all I hade to do was scale up all the formers and ribs and to cut them all out, the scaling was easy I just times the copier to 1.33, I supoosed the cutting out took me a couple of nights to do, but it was far cheaper then paying all those euro's.
THE BUILD BEGINS