Göppingen Gö 4
German two-seat glider, 1937
The Göppingen Gö 4 or Goevier is a German sailplane of the late 1930s used for training pilots. Its most notable features include side-by-side seating and dual controls, making the plane ideal for use as a trainer. It boasted average performance, compared to other gliders of the day, and was advertised as making the process of learning to fly sailplanes easier.
Design and development
The Goevier (or Gövier; Gö 4 read aloud in German) was designed as a modern trainer with side-by-side seating for easy communication between student and tutor, with performance comparable to that of the intermediate single seat trainers of the day such as the Grunau Baby and Göppingen Gö 1 Wolf. Its glide angle of 19:1 was rather better than that of both these aircraft (17:1).
It is a cantilever mid-wing monoplane. The wing has a single spar and a plywood covered D-box nose; aft of the spar the wing is fabric covered. The centre section is of constant chord and the outer panels tapered, with sweep on both edges. Here the trailing edge carries long span, broad chord ailerons with curved edges which extend aft of the centre section trailing edge, giving a roughly elliptical plan.
The side-by-side seat arrangement inevitably makes the front fuselage wider (945 mm; 37.4 in externally) than that of a single or tandem seat aircraft, though as the seats are just ahead of the main spar and the mid-wing placed at shoulder height, the interior opening into the wing roots provides extra working space.
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