NST can be contacted at:
NS.T Maschinenbau
FAX: +49-52036262
Phone: +49-52037281

Out of the blue, I recently received a phone call from Mark Alden, who is developing powered parachute systems, to tell me that Norbert Schwartze, the designer builder of the Minimum power system for hang gliders was in Australia for a holiday in February/March 1998; and was staying at the Sandringham Hotel nearby, and would I like to come with him to say hi. As it turned out, thanks to some shipping problems Norbert was without a car for first couple of weeks, so I offered to temporarily store his wing and Minimum unit in my workshop as a result.

While Norbert was here, he had the opportunity to fly out at Leongatha airfield with John Walmsley, a HG pilot who has his own version of the Minimum (I was busy that day) and had a good time; although John suffered a broken prop in flight when his exhaust strap failed....

I also took Norbert down to my home field (Tyabb) one morning to get some photos for the magazine. I took my Chaser trike along for some in-air shots. The weather was superb - calm to light winds, from 23 to 29 degrees Celcius.

For those who don't know, the Minimum is a little bit like the Mosquito or Explorer motor harnesses, except the motor is not mounted to your harness permanently. There is a tube attached on a vertical hinge near your hangpoint that extends back along the keel and between your rear wires. The engine is attached to this tube (below). The keel extension is removed so that the keel of the glider ends just aft of the rear wire attachment points.

There is a vertical post with a dolly wheel to assure the prop does not hit the ground. A pair of tubes are attached to the engine mount via flexible rubber joints and run forward where they are attached to your hip tow attachment points.

Two cables, one attached to the engine, the other to the bottom of the dolly wheel, run to each wing/crosstube intersection. The engine is therefore restrained from side-to-side movement.

A pair of removable wheels are attached to the control bar. One of them is steerable via a twist grip.

The picture at the right shows Norbert taxiiing. The dish shaped item on his kingpost is a parachute. He holds a patent for this type of setup.

Takeoff is on the wheels, or on foot if there's a breeze. Landing is generally on the wheels.

The engine is a Solo 210, with Bing 32mm carburettor and a tuned exhaust, swinging a 1.5m(!) prop through a belt reduction drive. The Solo is rated at 14hp, but probably achieves about 20hp with this exhaust. There is a clip-on hand throttle and kill switch for the control bar. A special fuel tank is suspended from the rear strut, and gravity-feeds the carburettor. Start is usually by puller, but an electric start option is available. This system is somewhat heavier than the Mosquito, which uses the Raket 120 engine.

First, we did an hours flying about, with me in the trike to take photos. this proved a problem, as I could not slow down enough... his flying speed was below the Chaser's stall speed of 35 mph (Cruise is 60-65), making flying slow and close a bit dangerous. This is why there aren't any air shots on this page. I flew mostly huge circles around him the whole time.

After landing, I was offered a flight. The first problem was the ground steering. It was incredibly stiff, and I found myself having extreme difficulty. Norbert promised it would improve with speed, but this sounded a bit risky! Nevertheless, I took his word, lined up on the strip, put my weight slightly to the left as instructed to minimise the effect of prop torque, and opened the throttle.

The steering was academic. By the time I got around to thinking "now, it's time to steer..." there was no ground underneath me to steer on! I was off in about 40 feet!

Because of the weight behind you, the bar position in the Minimum is further aft. I found it relatively easy to control during the climb (although we were getting some thermal turbulence at low level), but response with the engine on could only be described as sluggish. The Minimum swings a large prop, and Norbert says it is the torque/gyro effect of the prop that makes it so heavy.

It is a long time since I have flown so slowly under power, and with ear plugs in and no ASI, you have to rely on bar position for speed sense. I basically flew the normal aircraft circuit pattern at the field, and a circuit that normally takes about 7 minutes in the Chaser took over 15!

I immediately discovered that I have obviously got into the habit of swinging/yawing my body in turns when hang gliding, because I kept bashing my feet into the side tubes. In the Minimum, you just move your upper torso from side to side, as the side tubes restrict your lower body movement somewhat. This caused some initial panic, but I got used to minimalist input eventually.

Easing off the power on the downwind leg, I was able to play around a bit; handling was more normal- and sound levels a bit better.

It was when I turned onto my final approach that I got a surprise. I was Waayyy to high, and there was a thermal -but I was on the approach path and needed to get down so as not to be in the way of aircraft on approach. In the end, I had to move into the "dead side" of the circuit area and wash off height with lots of 360's, giving me an opportunity to note that handling was quite reasonable with power "off", the restricted movement problems aside.

Landing was simple - just rolled it on and stopped in feet.

I had some time to chat to Norbert, and asked him what had inspired him to design the Minimum. Somewhat disillusioned with the amount of travelling he had to do to get any hang gliding in his part of Germany, about 17 years ago, he and a friend purchased a hang glider power pack that attached to the glider kingpost. It took them only a couple of attempted flights and some bent aluminium to decide it was a dangerous system, so Norbert took the engine and designed the original Minimum, which initially was entirely foot-launched. After a few pretzelled control bars in poor landings, he added the front wheels!

Because the system could be used with an essentially unmodified hang glider, it became locally popular, and at the peak of the system's popularity they were selling over one hundred a year, with 2 people employed full time to make them, and over the years since, more than 1000 Minimums have been sold, about half within Germany. A Minimum has been flown to 15,000 feet, and trips of over 700km have been undertaken. In fuel economy competitions, they have achieved as little as 2.5 litres per hour!

The demand is less right now, (1998) and NST sold only about 10 Minimums in '97..

About 10 years ago, Norbert bought 5 Minimums to Australia. One remained here, and the other 4 were sold to some visiting international hang glider pilots. The engine of the remaining Minimum is still around, having been re-used on a Justra Stratos trike, and is now in the hands of Larry Jones...

Norbert's main business is in manufacturing industrial machinery; he has patents on a number of machines used in fabric manufacture. The Minimum is now purely a sideline, but with the equipment available in his factory, most of the components are manufactured in-house.

Norbert Schwartz can be contacted at:
NS.T Maschinenbau
FAX: +49-52036262
Phone: +49-52037281