science

Grüne Post

Grüne Post is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Grüne Post rather than just read about it. In short: The Grüne Post was a secondary trainer glider designed by Alexander Lippisch at the request of a German newspaper, the Grüne Post (English: Green Post), who distributed plans. Many were built by amateur groups.

Key takeaways

Grüne Post belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Grüne Post to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Grüne Post from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Grüne Post was a secondary trainer glider designed by Alexander Lippisch at the request of a German newspaper, the Grüne Post (English: Green Post), who distributed plans. Many were built by amateur groups.

Design and development In 1932 the Grüne Post, a popular German Sunday newspaper, approached Alexander Lippisch, a successful glider designer, for plans of a club glider that they would make available to their one million readers. The resulting simple single seat aircraft, named after the paper, was broadly similar to his earlier Prüfling design of six years earlier. The performance of the two types was also similar. The Grüne Post had a constant chord, unswept wooden wing built around two spars and fabric covered except at the leading edge, which was plywood skinned. Its tips were slightly angled outwards behind the leading edge, where the tips of the broad ailerons were cropped. It was supported over the fuselage on a short chord, thin, enclosed pylon, its leading edge vertical under the forward wing and sloping down to the upper fuselage under the trailing edge of the wing. The forward half of the fuselage was built on a 610 mm (24.0 in) wide V-section platform, Zögling-style but with sloping side covering, onto which the controls and the single seat, with its back on the wing pylon, were mounted. The short nose section containing the cockpit opening could be removed for access or display. From each side of the platform a pair of streamlined, parallel lift struts braced the wing at about mid-span. Behind it the fuselage had a simple rectangular section structure. The Grüne Post had a near rectangular horizontal tail of constant chord and slightly angled tips. A straight tapered, narrow fin was placed far enough aft that the rudder hinge line was almost beyond the elevator trailing edge; the rudder was also straight tapered, square tipped and reached down to the keel. The Grüne Post landed on a rubber sprung skid on the bottom of the fuselage platform, assisted by a small tail skid. The first flight was in 1932 or 1933. Many Grüne Posts were amateur built from the plans available from the newspaper. The plans spread widely: two Grüne Posts were built in Hungary and one in Latvia. There is a replica in the German Gliding Museum on the Wasserkuppe but no originals in European museums.

Specifications Data from Sailplanes 1920-1945General characteristics Capacity: One Length: 5.84 m (19 ft 2 in) Wingspan: 10.00 m (32 ft 10 in) Wing area: 13.5 m2 (145 sq ft) Aspect ratio: 7.4 Empty weight: 110 kg (243 lb) Gross weight: 200 kg (441 lb) Performance

Wing loading: 14.8 kg/m2 (3.0 lb/sq ft)

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Grüne Post

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Grüne Post claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Grüne Post before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Grüne Post ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Grüne Post

In research: Grüne Post appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Grüne Post in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Grüne Post is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1930s German sailplanes, Aircraft first flown in 1932, Glider aircraft, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Grüne Post outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Grüne Post in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Grüne Post means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Grüne Post out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Grüne Post in simple terms?

Why does Grüne Post matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Grüne Post?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Grüne Post.