Do you say K6 or Ka6, K7 or Ka7? Which, if any, is correct, and why? As most gliding enthusiasts will know,
Schleicher's prolific designer, Rudolf Kaiser, had an abbreviation of his surname in the designations of his designs. Initially, Ka was
used.
Back in 1933, the technical
department of the Reichluftfahrtministerium (phew!), the German Air Ministry, had
standardised the designations for German aircraft, military and civil. Each aircraft type
was allocated a number, prefixed by two letters from the name of the manufacturing
company or its Chief Designer. For example, Dornier had the Do17, Junkers, the Ju88,
Heinkel, the He111 and so on.
Perhaps you have now guessed that
Ka had been already allocated - long before Kaiser's gliders
appeared.
With the end of World War Two, this
designation system from the Third Reich was no longer strictly adhered to. Nevertheless, once the duplication was realised, to avoid
any possibility of confusion, Kaiser's abbreviation became just K. The changeover
came with the K7. So, who was the original Ka? It was Albert Kalkert, coincidentally also a glider
designer. He was responsible for the Kalkert Ka430 transport glider of 1944. The records
say a dozen or so were built. So, perhaps K should be used
retrospectively for all Kaiser designs. In Britain, glider pilots have done so for as long
as I can remember, just lazily saying K2, K4, K6, K8, K13, K21 etc, etc, oblivious to
the historical nuances. |
