Flying with the Schweizers: The Story of Schweizer Aircraft

By William Schweizer and Paul H. Schweizer

The story of Schweizer Aircraft is the story of the American dream. Three brothers became enamored with flight during the golden age of aviation. Aviation becomes their passion. In 1930, they design, build, and then teach themselves to fly in their first glider. They pursue their dream and create a company that eventually produces over six thousand aircraft. The company’s products make aviation history. Bill Schweizer tells the story of those early years — up to the transition of the company in 1981 to the second generation of Schweizers. Paul H. Schweizer picks up the story from there. The Schweizers’ entrepreneurial approach to business and refusal to let go of their dream resulted in the company becoming an industry leader in sailplanes, agricultural spray aircraft, light helicopters, covert surveillance aircraft, and unmanned vehicles. The diversity of its aviation products made it unique. At the time the business was sold to Sikorsky Aircraft in 2004, Schweizer Aircraft was the oldest privately-owned aircraft manufacturer in the world. It is a remarkable story that will inspire others with a passion and a dream.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Jun 1, 2019
• ISBN: 9781532069925

William Schweizer

William Schweizer was part of the first generation of the Schweizer family that started to make thousands of gliders, airplanes, helicopters, and unmanned vehicles. He was only twelve years old when the first Schweizer glider was built and joined his brothers in the newly formed Schweizer Aircraft Corp. in 1941. He retired in 1981 and continued flying sailplanes into his 1980s. He died at age ninety-eight. Paul H. Schweizer was born into aviation, and at age fourteen, he became a sailplane pilot. By the age of eighteen, he was an experienced contest pilot and a flight instructor. After graduating from Dartmouth College, he joined the Boeing Co. When he joined Schweizer Aircraft, he focused on marketing and finance. He retired in 2009, four years after Sikorsky purchased the company. He splits his time between Arizona and Utah with his wife, Lauren, and remains an active pilot.

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Copyright © 2019 Paul H. Schweizer.

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ISBN: 978-1-5320-6991-8 (sc)

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Dedication

To Evalyn, Oliver, Goldie, and the other Schweizer grandchildren so that

they and their progeny will better understand the family’s aviation heritage.

and

Gratitude

I would like to lovingly thank my wife, Lauren, and acknowledge

the significant role that she, along with Lucy and Bonnie (the wives

of Stu and Les) played in the lives of our families and business. For

better or worse, throughout all of those years in which we were

consumed by Schweizer Aircraft and were dealing with difficult

problems, intense stress, craziness, and too many hours away

from home, they hung in there providing encouragement, support,

tolerance, and love. They made it possible for the three of us to retain

our perspective on what is truly important. We thank you.

Acknowledgments

During the nearly 80 years in which the Schweizer family was building aircraft, we dealt with a huge network of people from all around the world. First and foremost were the many thousands of individuals the company employed. Just as importantly were those who owned the 6260 aircraft manufactured by Schweizer Aircraft and/or who flew in Schweizer sailplanes, airplanes, or helicopters. Without them, the company would not have existed. In addition, others were involved by providing materials, parts, and services; others were employees of the aerospace companies that Schweizer worked with on a subcontract basis; others were involved with the distribution networks used to sell and support Schweizer products; and still others supported the company in many hundreds of different ways (e.g., lawyers, accountants, friends, politicians, lobbyists, etc.).

Because it would have been impossible to mention by name all of those individuals that the company was indebted to, I chose to mention as few names as possible to avoid slighting all who were not mentioned. That said, I want to acknowledge the debt of gratitude that the Schweizer family has to all of those individuals whose lives were touched by Schweizer Aircraft or its products. Thank you.

Paul H. Schweizer

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction —Paul H. Schweizer

PART 1

The Founding Fathers: The First Generation

Foreword to Part 1 : Boyd McDowell II

Chapter 1     The Boys in the Schweizer Barn (1930-1935)

Chapter 2     Founding of Schweizer Aircraft Corp. (1936-1940)

Chapter 3     World War II Era (1941-1945)

Chapter 4     Post–World War II Era (1946-1949)

Chapter 5     Korean War Period (1950-1953)

Chapter 6     Back to a Peacetime Economy (1954-1957)

Chapter 7     Birth of the Ag Cat (1958-1960)

Chapter 8     The Sailplane Market Finally Arrives 1961–1965

Chapter 9     Ag Cats, Sailplanes, and Surveillance Aircraft (1966-1969

Chapter 10   The Vietnam War Peaks (1977-1980)

Chapter 11   Ag Cats Sales Take Off (1974-1977)

Chapter 12   The Winds of Change (1977-1980)

PART 2

The Second Generation

Foreword to Part 2 : Paul H. Schweizer

Chapter 13   Transition of Management and Ownership

Chapter 14   Purchase of 269 Series Helicopter Program

Chapter 15   Start-Up of the Helicopter Program

Chapter 16   The Good Years: Profitability and Diversification

Chapter 17   The Bad Years

Chapter 18   The Japanese Connection 1990–1995

Chapter 19   Road to Recovery

Chapter 20   Sale of the Company

Chapter 21   How Sikorsky Destroyed the Business

Chapter 22   Epilogue

APPENDICES

Appendix A   Howard Hughes and Jack Real

Appendix B   Politicians of Merit

Appendix C   Profitability in a Closely Held Company

Appendix D   Categories and Quantities of Schweizer Produced Aircraft

Appendix E   Historical Statistics: 1940–2012

•   E.1: Average Yearly Employment

•   E.2: Annual Sales

About the Authors

Introduction

Paul H. Schweizer

February 15, 2019

The story of Schweizer Aircraft Corporation is the story of the American dream.

An immigrant comes to the United States from a faraway land to start a new life. He makes enough money to send back home for the woman who is to become his wife. They marry and have children. He works long and hard in New York City as a chef so that he can provide opportunities for his children. They move fifty miles upstate to Peekskill where he starts a restaurant. His three sons become swept away by the Golden Age of Aviation. In 1927, Charles Lindbergh becomes their hero when he flies from New York to Paris. They read an article in the June 1929 National Geographic about flying gliders in Germany. The boys (now in grammar school and high school) scrimp and save every dime they can get to fulfill their aviation dream. In 1930, they design and build a primary glider. Never having been in an aircraft, they then teach themselves how to fly by launching their glider higher and higher. They don’t kill themselves (although there were many crashes), so they go on to design and build a second glider and then a third.

From that humble beginning, the three brothers went on to form a company, Schweizer Aircraft Corporation, dedicated to building gliders. Eventually they build more than two thousand gliders and become a world leader in that sector of the aviation industry. World War II provides the opportunity to diversify their business into making components for America’s major aircraft companies such as Curtiss-Wright, Republic, and Fairchild. After the war, the brothers do whatever they can to survive in an industry that is, by nature, subject to large peaks and deep valleys. They continually reinvent the company to avoid going out of business. In the late 1950s, they find a niche building special-use airplanes for Grumman and, in so doing, become a world leader in agricultural spray aircraft.

Eventually the company transitions from the first to the second generation of Schweizers. The entrepreneurial spirit that enabled Schweizer Aircraft to survive and grow under the brothers is even more pronounced with the next generation. New products are added. The company becomes the largest employer in the southern tier of New York State and the last aircraft manufacturer in a state that was once renowned for aviation. Its products are flown in more than seventy-five countries throughout the world. Because of the quality of its products, Schweizer Aircraft becomes a respected industry leader in sophisticated aerospace products including helicopters, covert surveillance aircraft, and unmanned vehicles. Before being sold to a Fortune 50 aerospace company with yearly sales of $55 billion, Schweizer Aircraft was the oldest privately owned aviation company in the world, and it had produced more than six thousand aircraft.

Now that’s a nice story—not bad for three boys who just wanted to fly in an aircraft. It is a story of incredibly hard work, dedication, faith, entrepreneurship, and integrity. But it is also a story of a family whose passion for aviation was so strong that they would not let it die.

This book tells the story of Schweizer Aircraft Corporation, from the first glider in 1930 to 2012 when Sikorsky Aircraft destroyed and then closed the business after seven years of ownership. It is told through the eyes of two authors, my father (William Schweizer) and myself (Paul H. Schweizer). My father retired from active management in 1981. After that he wrote his first book, Soaring with the Schweizers. Part 1 is an edited version of that book. He chronologically tells the story of the three brothers and Schweizer Aircraft from their childhood days of building the first glider up through their retirement. In Part 2, I pick up the story starting with transition of management and ownership to the second generation. The format I use to cover these 32 years revolves around nine major events that altered the company and caused it to go in new directions.

Schweizer Aircraft was unique in the annals of aviation. The company’s products changed aviation history. The Schweizer family and its employees take pride in that uniqueness and in the legacy of Schweizer Aircraft’s aviation products that will live on for generations.

It is my hope that the story of Schweizer Aircraft will inspire others with a passion and a dream.

Figure%20Part%201%20B%26W.jpeg

Three Boys and a Dream

Figure Part 1: The above painting was created by Steve Hines

for the cover of the December 1989 edition of Soaring Magazine.

It is used herein with the consent of the magazine. William

Schweizer published Soaring with the Schweizers in 1991.

PART 1

The Founding Fathers:

The First Generation

1930–1980

William Schweizer

Foreword to Part 1

Soaring with the Schweizers

Boyd McDowell II¹

June 1989

I t’s no wonder that in 1939 my father encouraged the Schweizer boys to come to Elmira to set up their little company to manufacture sailplanes. He knew a good thing when he saw it. This book is about the history of the Schweizer Aircraft Corporation.

In the case of Schweizer Aircraft, this Foreword must convey a sense of family. There is no finer example of family than the Schweizers. They are a close-knit and talented group, and their varied personalities have meshed to create and build a small and unusual industrial company, one whose name is known and respected worldwide.

The unique character of the company is a reflection of its family owners. Singly and jointly, they are the embodiment of hard work, honesty, integrity, and steadfast purpose. The senior brothers have established themselves in global aviation, particularly in soaring and gliding. Ernie has been the engineer, the designer—from sophisticated sailplanes to beautiful sculpture. Paul is the financial manager, salesman, and pilot, and he has an international reputation for soaring skills. He is dedicated to the art of soaring and is the author of its history in the United States. Bill, the youngest, is the manufacturing manager and a salesman of considerable talent who can persuade prospective buyers of their need for the company’s products—and a renowned storyteller, as evidenced in this manuscript.

The younger generation is becoming equally well recognized. Les is the engineer and designer—as his father has been. Bill’s son, Stuart, is demonstrating organization skills in manufacturing and production, and his brother, Paul H., specializes in finance and worldwide sales.

The friendliness and helpfulness of all the Schweizers have endeared them to a large number of employees through the years. Certainly, one of the advantages of a small company is this one-on-one relationship.

The family would not be complete without the Schweizer women. Each wife of the six Schweizers has been and is strongly supportive of her husband and has added appropriate dimension to the success of the company.

Since their arrival in Elmira in 1939, our Chemung Valley area has been blessed with Schweizer enthusiasm and leadership. We are a better community for their presence. May the next many years be as exciting and as challenging to the Schweizers and their company as were the first fifty!

4repim.jpg

Figure 1.1. Ernie, Bill, and Paul Schweizer. A 1925 picture of the

Schweizer boys near their Bonnie Brook home in Peekskill, New

York. It was taken shortly after the death of their mother.

CHAPTER 1

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The Boys in the Schweizer Barn

1930–1935

W E WERE THREE teenaged boys who spent most of our spare time building model airplanes and gliders. Our fascination with aviation was kindled by Lindbergh’s flight across the Atlantic in 1927 and by a 1929 National Geographic article about gliding in Germany and on Cape Cod. Ernie, Paul, and I never dreamed that sixty years later, we would be reminiscing about our years in the aviation industry or that I’d be writing the history of the company that evolved from our teenage hobby.

In 1929, the three of us, along with five of our friends from our model airplane club, designed and constructed the first Schweizer glider. We met nearly every day after school in our father’s barn to build our primary-type glider made of wood with fabric covering. It was later named the SGP 1–1. At that time, Ernie, the designer, was eighteen; Paul, the organizer, was seventeen; and I was twelve.

The Schweizer family lived in a rambling home on six acres of land on the outskirts of Peekskill, forty-five miles north of New York City. The large barn made an ideal shop for the glider-construction project. My father, Papa Schweizer, purchased the home in 1923 and named it Bonnie Brook for the meandering brook that ran through the property. He had two thoughts in buying Bonnie Brook. He wanted to move his young family out of New York City, and he felt that Bonnie Brook would be an ideal site for an upscale restaurant.

Papa, a chef trained in France and England, came to this country from his native Switzerland in 1906. One can only imagine the emotions he must have felt as he sailed by the Statue of Liberty on his way to Ellis Island and New York City. During the time our first glider was being built, Papa operated the Carnegie Hall restaurant (from 1916 to 1932) at the world-famous concert hall in New York City. When he started, there were no local, state, or federal income taxes. At the end of each week, he and his partner just divided the money. Papa commuted to New York City six days a week. Because he left early in the morning and returned late at night, the family did not see much of him except on Sundays.

Our mother, Emma Bader Schweizer, had emigrated from Switzerland in 1908. She was kept very busy with five children, three boys and two girls: Helen, Ernie, Paul, Emily, and me. Unfortunately, Mother died of cancer in December 1924 when she was only forty years of age. I was six years old when she died and had a difficult time adjusting to this tragedy. From a family standpoint, however, her death probably drew us closer together as a family. Papa hired a live-in couple (Joe and Pauline Heimers) to look after the Schweizer children and our home. So he could be closer to his family, Papa left the Carnegie Hall restaurant in 1932 and opened the Bonnie Brook Inn in our Peekskill home.

Ernie and Paul were the prime movers on the first glider project and supplied most of the $135 required to buy materials. They saved their allowances and ran two miles to school in order to save bus fares and help fund the project.

The structural frame of our first glider was made completely of wood. A few metal fittings were used where bolts and nuts were required to attach the wings and tail to the fuselage. Wings and tail surfaces were detachable so that they could be built and transported independently. Before starting, we read several articles about glider design and construction. They served as our construction and quality control guides. Home builders were warned to use aircraft-grade lumber (wood with a fine straight grain and no knots) for strength. The nearest source for the Sitka spruce that we needed was an Ohio firm, Yoho & Hooker.

Ernie decided to use a Clark Y airfoil shape. This was the same airfoil used on the Spirit of St. Louis, which Lindbergh had flown from New York to Paris. Our glider had a constant cord wing and a span of thirty-four feet. The wings were covered with cotton muslin and coated with nitrate dope to make the surfaces airtight. The wood fuselage was varnished. Once complete, the wings and tail were painted yellow and green.

In mid-June 1930, one week before Ernie was to graduate from high school, we assembled and painted the glider in the barn’s second-floor hayloft. At last, it was ready to fly. Papa, who was home all day only on Sunday, very seldom came into the barn and did not know we were building a glider. He was not interested in sports or mechanical things. He did not allow us to ride bicycles because he thought they were too dangerous. His main home hobby was working in his flower gardens. The Heimers were aware of our glider project. I suspect they talked to Papa about it but probably assumed it would never be completed and flown.

That Sunday, Papa came into the barn while we were putting the final touches on it. He walked entirely around the glider, looked it over, and left without saying a word. He did not even ask, How are you going to get it out? We took this as a tacit signal that he was aware of what was going on and that we could fly the glider.

First Glider Flights

The glider was disassembled and carried down the stairs in pieces. It rained on Monday and Tuesday of that week, so the first flight wasn’t made until Wednesday, June 19. We chose to use our neighbor’s field because it was flatter and larger than ours. The glider attracted a large crowd and resulted in a front-page article in the next day’s Peekskill Evening Star.

We used the shock cord method to launch our glider. This required a twelve-man ground crew. The shock cord was a 150-foot rope with an elastic rubber band core. The glider had an inverted C-shaped hook attached to its nose, and the shock cord had a two-inch steel ring attached at its midpoint. To launch the glider, the shock cord was laid in the shape of a V with its midpoint at the nose of the glider, and the ring was fastened to the nose hook. Five men held each end of the shock cord, and two men held the tail rope. Upon the pilot’s command, the boys on the tail rope dug in their heels and held their rope firmly while the ones on the shock cord started to walk and then run forward. When the pilot yelled release, the two on the tail rope released their grip and the glider catapulted forward and into the air. As the glider passed over the shock cord, the ring on the cord dropped away from the C hook.

P8%20REPL%20IMAGE.jpeg

Figure 1.2. The June 20, 1930, edition of the Peekskill Evening

Star reported on the Schweizer brothers’ first shock cord launch of

their primary glider. Also included in the photo are friends Ernie

Whidden, Aaron Yellott, and Atlee Hauck. All three of these friends

spent their entire working careers as employees of Schweizer Aircraft.

The 1–1 was classified as a primary glider because its fuselage had no enclosure around the pilot. The drag caused by the fuselage gave the ship a high sink rate. We estimated that its glide angle was about eight to one.² This meant that with a five-foot-high shock-cord launch, it would go forty feet forward before it touched the ground. The pilot sat in the open on a small wooden seat with a lap safety belt and two basic controls: a stick in his hand for elevator and aileron control and a foot-controlled rudder bar for turning.

All club members flew the new glider during the first two days. Amazingly there were no mishaps. The neighbor’s field was relatively small, about five hundred feet long, so flights were more or less ground skids about two to six feet off the ground. The longest flight covered a distance of one hundred feet.³

Now that we had some experience, we decided to move flight operations to Todd Field. It was about a mile from our home and occasionally used by airplane barnstormers. There were two adjacent fields, each about 1,500 feet long. One had a gentle slope to the south and the other to the north. This allowed us to pick the proper field each day so flights could be made into the wind for lower takeoff and landing speeds.

Todd Field made higher and longer flights possible. A trailer was built to transport the glider when it was disassembled. On our first trip to Todd Field, the trailer was pulled by hand because we had not obtained an automotive trailer license. A local policeman who was driving up the road offered a tow, which we gratefully accepted.

page%209.jpg

Figure 1.3. SGP 1–1 shock cord launch in August 1930; Paul is

at the controls. Operations had been moved to Todd Field because

Ernie hit the stone wall at the end of our neighbor’s field.

We taught ourselves to fly by taking very gradual steps. This was necessary because none of us had ever been in an aircraft. More importantly, we did not know anyone who had ever flown an aircraft; therefore, there was no one to instruct us. To buy a ride in an airplane with a barnstormer was outside of our means. The flight-training procedure was as follows: first low straight flights; then higher straight flights; then mild turns; and finally, 180-degree turns, which resulted in downwind landings. During that summer, we incorporated Bellanca-type lift struts that improved the stability and glide angle of our aircraft.

In September 1930, Ernie entered New York University to study aeronautical engineering. This forced our flight operations to stop. On the Friday after Thanksgiving, the glider was taken to Todd Field once again. It was a cold fall day with winds gusting to twenty miles per hour. The wind was so strong that a shock-cord launch was not required. The glider was towed by hand with a rope tied to each wing strut. On the second flight of the day, Paul reached a height of fifteen feet and was flying with zero forward ground speed because of the strong wind. A gust hit him from the side and the glider smashed into the ground, wing first. The 1–1 glider looked like a pile of kindling wood. Luckily, Paul walked away with only a few scratches. Important lessons were learned that day: avoid gusty air, but if you can’t, have extra airspeed.

During the winter, the glider was rebuilt, and numerous improvements were incorporated. We wanted to be ready to start flying again by the next summer. The fuselage structure and cockpit were enclosed, and we redesignated our glider the l–lA. The enclosed fuselage resulted in less drag and a noticeable improvement in glide angle. It also provided a sense of security and comfort to the pilot.

Primary gliders became quite popular among aviation enthusiasts in the early 1930s because airplanes were not readily available and were very expensive to own and operate. During the Depression, many aircraft manufacturers added homebuilt primary glider kits to their product lines in order to boost sales. No CAA⁴ certification of pilots or aircraft was required. Our only requirement was to put a CAA identification number on the glider.

During the early 1930s, many serious accidents occurred as a result of in-flight structural failures and from a general lack of knowledge about building and/or flying gliders.

Second National Glider Meet

The most famous gliding center in the world was the Wasserkuppe in central Germany. The Wasserkuppe had ridges running in several directions with large, flat areas between them. Dr. Wolfgang Klemperer, an outstanding German glider pilot in the 1920s, was a dirigible engineer for Goodyear. He made frequent trips along Route 17 between Akron, Ohio, and New York City. Klemperer strongly recommended to the National Glider Association the Elmira area as a perfect gliding sight because, like the Wasserkuppe, it had high ridges running in different directions. Through the influence of Dr. Klemperer, Elmira hosted the First US National Glider Meet in September 1930. From that time on, Elmira became known as the Glider Capital of America. My brothers and I read every scrap of information about this event that we could get our hands on.

In August 1931, the Schweizer brothers made their first visit to Elmira to attend the Second US National Glider Meet. The trip was made in our 1929 Model A Ford. It took more than eight hours to cover the two hundred miles from Peekskill to Elmira. Most of the trip was made on old Route 17, which was a narrow, winding road that hit the center of every little town on the way. The YMCA on Church Street provided our Elmira accommodations at a rate of fifty cents per person per day. At that time, one dollar would buy eleven gallons of gas, and ice cream was thirty cents a quart.

The meet headquarters were at the Caton Avenue Airport in Southport. Thermal flying was in its infancy in 1931. All contest flying used the ridge lift created by the upward movement of the air as the wind was deflected over the ridges. The pilot attempted to fly in the rising air in front of the ridge. Six takeoff sites on ridges running in different directions were established in the Elmira area. The takeoff site depended on the direction of the wind that day. The stronger the wind and the more directly it hit the ridge, the easier it was for gliders to stay aloft.

Most of the contest flights were made on the South Mountain ridge, which was located one mile south of the Caton Avenue Airport. The ridge was seven hundred feet above the airport and perfectly situated when the wind blew from the northwest. Flights of over eight hours in duration and distances of up to twenty miles were made during the 1931 contest. Franklin (Bud) Iszard, co-owner of Iszard’s Department Store in Elmira, finished in second place and made one flight of more than eight hours.

P11%20REPL%20IMAGE.jpeg

Figure 1.4. Second National Glider Meet in Elmira, New

York (August 1931). This was the first glider meet attended

by the Schweizer brothers. Photo by Fred Loomis, courtesy

of National Soaring Museum, Elmira, New York.

The most memorable event for the Schweizer boys happened as we approached the airport on the first day. An ambulance raced by with an injured glider pilot. Upon arriving at the airport, we saw the crashed glider. We learned that it had taken off from South Mountain. As the glider was approaching the airport, the pilot realized he was too low. He dived at the ground to pick up speed in hopes of pulling up and over the obstructions. When he pulled the stick back, the wings separated from the fuselage. This accident made us think about the importance of structural integrity and quality control in the design and construction of our gliders. Attending this meet provided a great education for Ernie, Paul, and me. It strengthened our interest and fascination in gliding and aviation. I also learned to hate root beer. I saw a sign at the airport—As much root beer as you can drink for 5 cents—and I accepted the challenge.

In the fall of 1931, my brother Paul entered New York University where he also studied aeronautical engineering. Every day, Ernie and Paul commuted forty-five miles by train to New York City. Our glider design and construction efforts pretty much came to a dead stop during the school year. New York University had a glider club, and some of the members occasionally came home with Paul and Ernie on the weekends.

The German glider designs we saw on our first visit to Elmira influenced Ernie’s next design, the 1–2. This utility glider had a long, straight wing (forty-foot span) and was built from wood with plywood and fabric covering. The construction started in the spring of 1932 and required more man-hours of wood craftsmanship than expected. It was put aside that summer, and construction began on a simpler ship to build: the 1–3. This design was similar to the 1–1A. Improvements included an enclosed fuselage and a thirty-six-foot constant-cord wing.

Ernie received a welding outfit for his birthday in April 1933. He was anxious to learn because welding was essential to building a safe, modern glider. In our previous designs, welding was kept to a minimum, and when required, we were dependent on our local blacksmith. To say he did not weld to aircraft-quality standards was an understatement. Ernie became concerned about the quality of welds on our original glider when he experienced a loss of aileron and elevator control due to a weld failure. Being big and strong, he let go of the control stick and grabbed a wing strut with each hand. It looked as if he manhandled the glider to get it safely back on the ground.

The SGU 1–3 was ready by the summer of 1933 and proved to have good handling characteristics with a positive, responsive control system. The glide angle was not as good as expected because of a poor choice for the airfoil. In a dive, the glider did not pick up much speed and would sink rapidly due to the shape of the airfoil. Although it was nicknamed the Brick, this glider was flown successfully for the next three years.

The all-wood 1–2 was completed during the spring of 1934 and taken to the National Soaring Meet in Elmira that summer. It had a beautiful varnished mahogany fuselage with yellow wings and was nicknamed the Yellow Peril for good reason. The ship was slow to respond in flight, so we used to kid about taking a ride rather than flying the glider.

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Figure 1.5. SGU 1–3, the Brick. This glider was completed in

1933 and actually flew better than its nickname suggests.

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Figure 2.1. Ernie Schweizer contemplating his

latest design, the SGU 1–6 (1936).

CHAPTER 2

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Founding of Schweizer Aircraft Corp.

1936–1940

1936:    Ernie graduated from college in 1934, and Paul graduated in 1935. Because there were practically no aeronautical engineering jobs available at that time, they worked part-time in my father’s restaurant and, whenever possible, in the barn on our gliders. Their first project was the SGU 1–6, the first all-metal glider in the world. This gave rise to the name: Schweizer Metal Aircraft Co.

Until that time, we had identified our gliders by name, such as the Brick, and we realized that we needed a logical identification system. We devised a system that has been used on all future Schweizer products. The numbering system for the SGU 1–6 breaks down as follows: The S stands for Schweizer, the G is for glider, and the U is for utility. The first number (1) stands for the number of persons it is designed to carry and the second number (6) is for the place of the model in the series of Schweizer designs. Other letters used in later models included the following: P for primary glider, S for sailplane, M for motorglider, and A for airplane. We used this identification system for all designs, even though a few of them (i.e., SGU 1–4 and SGU 1–5, for example) were never built.

The 1–6 fuselage had a pod and tail boom configuration that was intended to make it simpler and cheaper to build. It had a thirty-eight-foot wingspan with a constant cord wing to simplify tooling and construction. Ernie and Paul now had degrees as aeronautical engineers, so the airfoil for the SGU 1–6 was carefully selected after studying government and university wind tunnel test reports. This paid off. This design won third prize in the 1937 design contest sponsored by the Soaring Society of America. Despite its good flight characteristics, the 1–6 design was a little ahead of its time. The aviation public was not quite ready to accept an all-metal glider. It was finally sold to some members of the Harvard Gliding Club in 1938.

2-2.jpeg

Figure 2.2. SGU 1–6 in flight (without cockpit canopy). The 1–6 was

the world’s first all-metal glider.