GLIDERS IMPORTED TO OR BUILT UNDER LICENCE IN HUNGARY
1929-1945
Historic background
In Hungary the glider movement started in 1929. The first flying club, the MOVERO , Budapest, was founded at 1928. The next year a gliding site - called Farkashegy - had been selected on the hills west of Budapest. The first gliders flown in Hungary were two Zöglings and a Hol's der Teufel imported by MOVERO in 1929. A wooden hangar had been built at Farkashegy and when the gliders were delivered the gliderfield was opened. The first glider launches took place at June 21, 1929. In the hangar a workshop was formed to have adequate facilities for maintenance and repairs of gliders.
Even in the same year and during the following years more gliding clubs or gliding sections of existing flying clubs were founded across the country. In 1930 the first glider contest was organized at Farkashegy by the MOVERO to arouse public interest. The participants competed in a beginner (pupils with A or B badges) and an advance (pilots with C badge) group. The beginner group competed in duration flight, verification of skilfulness and target landing, while the advanced group in duration, altitude and distance flight categories. Four clubs entered the contest: MOVERO , Budapest; SACERO, Kaposvár; MOVERO , Gyöngyös; MÁVAERO, Budapest. The contest was a great success which was reflected in the results of the year:
| Club |
Members |
A badges |
B badges |
C badges |
Launches |
| MOVERO |
26 |
11 |
8 |
2 |
652 |
| SACERO |
18 |
12 |
1 |
0 |
1120 |
| MÁVAERO |
16 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
130 |
| Total |
60 |
25 |
9 |
2 |
1902 |
At the beginning few gliders were available. In 1930 the Lingel Furniture Factory, Budapest, the owner of which was deputy chairman of the MOVERO , decided to help the new movement by building 10 Zöglings. The factory bought the documentation and imported a Zögling from the Kegel factory to be used as a "template". Two gliders were donated to clubs - one of them to MOVERO at Farkashegy - and the others were bought by different clubs.
The movement spread quickly, new gliderfileds were opened and different workshops took up to build gliders though financing was scarce. There were well equipped and experienced workshops - for example the carpenter workshop of the MÁV Istvántelki Főműhely - and not so well equipped workshops without any experience such as a Boy Scout group which temporarily occupied an abandoned carpenter workshop of a steam-mill at Miskolc. Many carpenters from the workshops of new gliding clubs went to MOVERO 's workshop at Farkashegy to acquire the tricks of repairing as well as building gliders. The aviation authorities supported the clubs by sending experts to the workshops to help as well as to control their work. From the second half of the 1930s one of such experts was Ernő Rubik.
The glider park of the clubs consisted of the flllowing gliders at the end of 1931:
| Club |
Zögling |
Hol's der Teufel |
Prüfling |
Hängwind |
| MOVERO , Budapest |
4 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
| SACERO, Kaposvár |
2 |
|
|
1 |
| MÁVAERO, Budapest |
2 |
|
|
|
| Air Scouts, Budapest |
2 |
|
|
|
| MOVERO , Gyöngyös |
2 |
1 |
|
|
| Total |
12 |
3 |
1 |
2 |
The following table shows the results of 1931:
| Club |
A badge |
B badge |
C badge |
Launches |
Damages |
| MOVERO , Budapest |
20 |
8 |
4 |
850 |
24 |
| SACERO, Kaposvár |
17 |
8 |
1 |
1363 |
7 |
| MÁVAERO, Budapest |
9 |
2 |
|
485 |
7 |
| Air Scouts, Budapest |
15 |
3 |
|
644 |
6 |
| MOVERO , Gyöngyös |
6 |
4 |
|
600 |
2 |
| Total, 1931 |
67 |
25 |
5 |
3942 |
46 |
The development of gliding between 1929 and 1938 was slow due to lack of adequate financing of the clubs. Most depended upon outside support as the member fees in most cases did not meet even the direct costs of the operation. To finance new - bought or built - gliders they depended on outer support. The main sources of support were the "parent" organizations or the local public and money from these sources was not flowing freely due to the recession. There was an organization responsible for the development of Hungarian aviation in general and of a new air force in particular, the LÜH. This organization - which was at the same time the aviation authority as well - had no adequate budget to support gliding in every aspect. The LÜH mostly supported performance gliding bying licences for performance gliders, had them built and donated them to the most successful clubs.
There existed another organization, the MAeSz, which controlled sportflying from technical aspects and represented it in international forums. However its budget met only its operation costs.
As the country's rearmament gained strength in the second half of the 1930s the gliding movement accelerated as well. Training pilots in aeroplanes as well as in gliders became an important issue so HMNRA was founded in 1938. This organization gave financial support to sport flying with the aim to build up a reserve for the Air Force.
The imported and licence built gliders constituted the basis of gliding in Hungary up to the end of the 1930s when gradually Hungarian designed and built gliders took over the role.
Note:
Due to the number of small gliding groups and the widspread temporary-like production pattern no complete records survived for all gliders. Unfortunately even the survived registration records are not complete and do not show all the gliders built. In certain cases the only available sources are local newspapers which present many contradictions. The production and import numbers published here are trying to show the most plausible ones. Gliders which were built or imported but never flown are not included in the lists.
Sources [Book, article and internet refrences are given in original Hungarian form.]
Books:
Csanádi-Nagyváradi-Winkler: A magyar repülés története. 1977. 2. Bővített kiadás. Műszaki Könyvkiadó, Budapest. ISBN 963 10 1767 2
Jereb Gábor: Magyar vitorlázó repülőgépek. 1988. Műszaki Könyvkiadó, Budapest. ISBN 963 10 7126 X
Dr. Magyar György: Dunai szellők szárnyán. Fejezetek az esztergomi sportrepülés történetéből (1932-1988). MHSZ Esztergom Városi Vezetősége.
Mitter Imre: A magyar vitorllázórepülés képes története. ISBN 963 03 8971 1
A miskolci sportrepülés története. Kronológia 1911-1950. 2001. Borsod Megyei Repülő Klub, Miskolc. ISBN 963 00 5590 2
Farkashegyi Félévszázad. A MÁV Sportrepülő Egyesület és az MHSZ MÁV Repülő és Ejtőernyős Klub 50 éve. 1980. Közlekedés Dokumentációs Vállalat, Budapest.
Győr és a repülés. MHSz Győr-Sopron megyei vezetősége, 1988. ISBN: 963 032 994 0
Műegyetemi és Mezőgazdasági Repülők Klubja. Évkönyv, 1988.
Repülési Lexikon. 1991. Akadémiai Kiadó. ISBN 963 05 6207 3
Székesfehérvár Repüléstörténete I., II., III. 1997. Magyar Veterán Repülők Egyesületének Fejér Megyei Szervezete, Székesfehérvár. ISBN 963 8238 07 0
Király Sándor: Ötven év a Tisza felett. Fejezetek a szolnoki repülés történetéből. 1986, Szolnok.
Délibábok légterében. Debrecen és a Hajdúság repüléstörténete. Debreceni Könnyűrepülő Sportegyesület. Debrecen, 2000.
A székesfehérvári repülés története, III. kötet. Magyar Veterán Repülők Egyesülete, Fejér Megyei Szerevezet. 1999.
Articles:
Pázmándi N. József: Az esztergomi repülőipar kialakulása és fejlődése. 1986. Különnyomat. A Repülés Baráti Kör repüléstörténeti pályázatára készült pályamű.
Pázmándi N. József: Az elődök példája. A jövő mérnöke, XXVII évf. 4. Szám.
Burkhart A. L. Gusztáv: Jubilál a Cserkész Liliom. Magyar Cserkész, 1942 Március.
Fridrik Dezső: A hazai repülés és az ipar kapcsolatai. Járművek és Mezőgazdasági Gépek. 13. évf. 1966, 2. szám.
Kara Jenő: A magyar sportrepülés mai helyzete. Budapest Sportrepülés. 1938 január.
A "Czuwaj" átadása. Magyar Cserkész. 1938 május 15.
News and short reports on flying clubs:
Magyar Cserkész. 1937., 1938., 1939. és 1940. évfolyamok.
Magyar Szárnyak. 1938. és 1939. évfolyamok.
Manuscripts:
Presentation of József Szabados at Sopron, February 22, 1982.(manuscipt).
Internet (Certain URLs are no longer available):
Horváth Balázs: Magyar Repülés.
(http://horac.fw.hu/)
Básti József-Czuczor Miklós-Huszthy Mihály-Miklós László: Az ózdi sportrepülés története. 1977 január 19.
(http://www.gotofly.hu/elfrepterek/banreve/leiras.htm)
Füzesséry Csaba: A sárospataki repülés története. Hámori Péter: Repülőgépgyár a Csepel-szigeten. Népszabadság, 2002 július 5.
(http://www.tar.hu/frameset.phtml?path=/spatak/)
Pusztai János: Szárnyra keltek, mint a sasmadarak. A szentesi repülés története. Szentesi Élet. 2003 február 7.
(http://www.szentesinfo.hu/szentesielet/2003/05_0207/25.htm)
Szentesi Csaba: A magyar repülés kronológiája.
(http://freeweb.interware.hu/szentesi/repkapcs.htm)
Pusztai János: Repülés és hangáravató. Szentesi Élet. 2003 február 14.
(http://www.szentesinfo.hu/szentesielet/2003/06_0214/25.htm)
A kaposvári sportrepülés hőskora. Császár Károly Sportrepülő Egyesület.
(http://www.igm.hu/partners/csaszar/hoskor/)
A somogyi vitorlázórepülés története.
(www.termik.hu/egyesuletek/csaszar_karoly/cskse.htm)
Personal collections:
Andor Gibás
