Luftwaffe glider markings

[russhcastle]

Hi all,
Just joined the group, as it seems to be a bottomless well of knowledge, I thought I'd tap into it.
I am restoring to flying condition an Olympia Meise glider. This was built in 1943 by the Ferdinand Schmetz factory in Herzogenrath and was a high performance aircraft for it's time. It was used by the Luftwaffe in Denmark until liberated. It carried the codes LF+VO. Can anyone provide details of the unit? I also need further information regarding other markings.

Thanks and regards,

 

[Snautzer01]

BGA 449 DFS 108-70 Olympia-Meise WNr 227 This aircraft, coded 'LF+ YO' and built by F. Schmetz in July 1942, arrived at Farnborough during July 1945. It was flown in German markings as 'LF+YO' during 1945 and was displayed statically in A' Shed at Farnborough during the German Aircraft Exhibition of October/November 1945. It made its last recorded flight at Farnborough on 19th May 1946, still as 'LF+VO'. It was then released to the BGA and allocated to the Newcastle Gliding Club, becoming BGA 449 in July 1946. Although its C of A expired in 1970, this aircraft was rebuilt and flew again in 1984. It is still in existence at Perranporth airfield in Cornwall, without a C of A.

 

[Snautzer01]

btw this one? Hulp gevraagd voor restauratie Olympia Meise

There are pictures of this glider carrying the wartime code. They were on eBay a while back. I will ask for them and post them.

 

[russhcastle]

Hi,
Thanks for the information. I presume you got most of it from the excellent book War Prizes by Phil Butler. Just to update you, I now own this glider and it having an extensive restoration back to flying condition. The intention is to finish it in the original Kuftwaffe colours and markings, hence the posting. The photo's you mention would be extremely helpful, I really hope you can locate them, thanks.

 

[DFM+BB]

Hi guys ! I just found your conversation, this is really interesting, as this subject is really unknown to me ( I mean WWII luftwaffe gliders as the Dsf108, camo ). I came across a picture on the net with a camoufled DFS108, but looking at the Farnborough exibition pictures I found the following (well known ) one, are we talking about the same Kite ?

If yes, it seems that it is nearly in the same color than the "pre-war" Meise no ?

Anyway Really Cool project ! I found some part of the german ETL, are you interested ?

 

[A4K]

Great project, best of luck with it!

Great photo too - would so LOVE to have been able to attend that exhibition!!!

 

[russhcastle]

Hi,
Thanks for the interest, it is indeed the same aircraft. When I have any interesting pictures to show I'll post them, in the mean time this is how the fuselage looks today. Please advise on the German ETL, whatever it is, if it relates to this glider, I'm interested!

 

[vikingBerserker]

Man, that's just so fricken cool!

 

[DFM+BB]

Great work on the way !
It seems that the canopy is not the original one ( on the left of the picture ) ? I'll send you the part from the ETL I got but I need to find them back first ( I'll PM you )

 

[russhcastle]

Very observent, however the canopy you can see is from Slingsby Gull 4 we were working on at the time! (Also not original) The glider does not have the original canopy, however I have aquired a damaged French built Nord 2000 (1947 works number 92) from which I am utilising various parts, including the canopy which is the correct design. See pic.

 

[DFM+BB]

Hi my friend !

I really love the shape of the original canopy, happy that you manage to find a new one from a Nord 2000 !
I tried to look up on the net if more pictures from the captured aircraft exibition were available, but I was really disappointed I did not find pictures of your aircraft

Here is the iamges of the ETL I found on the web. It is far from complete it but gives good ref on the instrumentation used in the aircraft ( with the FL numbers it should be easy to reconstruct an accurate german instrumentation panel I think ).

Alsoenclosed an other document but I think only the last page is related to the DFS108, don't remeber were I foud it, maybe on this forum.

hope it can help

 

[A4K]

Wow, fantastic projects mate!!! Let me know if you need workers!!!

(Btw, I'm making a Kranich 2 in 1:72 at the moment)

 

[russhcastle]

Hi All,

Can anyone help identify these markings. There are 6 lines of text, port side only I think, I need to know what the wording is, the font style, and the size of the lettering. Thanks for having a look.