A model airplane pioneer led the way

Heimo Stadlbauer

Photos: Stadlbauer and Gollner

The result was a flight lasting about nine minutes at an altitude of 300 meters. Several additional flights, each lasting about 15 minutes, were subsequently conducted. This experiment demonstrated at the time that manned electric flight is possible. While electric model aircraft continued to advance thanks to constant innovations in models, batteries, and motors, full-scale aviation did not see further adoption in the following years due to the increased weight and short flight times.

The MB-E1 was rebuilt and restored in 2017 with support from FH-Joanneum/Aviation in Graz. The aircraft is expected to be on display at the Austrian Aviation Museum in Graz-Thalerhof (www.luftfahrtmuseum.at) starting in May 2018.

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After his successful maiden flight on October 21, 1973, Fred Militky wrote: “The MB-31 project demonstrated that it is possible to power an aircraft heavier than air using electrical energy. It will depend on battery manufacturers whether they succeed in producing even better batteries in the future—ones that are also lighter—which will make electric flight accessible to a broader audience, at least in the realm of recreational aviation.”

Also in the 1970s, an electrically powered hang glider flew successfully—and illegally—at the Militky Cup in Pfäffikon. It was powered by two motors from the seat adjustment mechanism of an American car.

Austrian Aviation Museum, Curator of Model Aviation: Fred Militky; a name that older model aviators are certainly still familiar with. As early as the late 1950s, he designed the free-flying, electrically powered “Silentius,” and in 1973, Graupner released his design, the remote-controlled electric glider “HI FLY.”

But Fred Militky was also involved in manned aviation. His school friend, Heinrich Brditschka, ran a company in Haid near Linz on the Danube that specialized in the construction of single-engine aircraft (the company operates today under the name HB-Flugtechnik). In 1973, Militky and Brditschka conducted a feasibility study and brought the companies Bosch (propulsion motor) and Varta (nickel-cadmium battery technology) on board. The result was the MB-E1 (Militky-Brditschka Electric Aircraft No. 1).

On October 21, 1973, the world’s first electrically powered manned aircraft (wingspan 12 m) took to the skies for the first time in Wels. The result was a flight lasting about nine minutes at an altitude of 300 meters. Several additional flights lasting approximately 15 minutes were subsequently conducted. This experiment demonstrated at the time that manned electric flight was possible. While electric model aircraft continued to advance thanks to constant innovations in models, batteries, and motors, full-scale aircraft did not gain further traction in the following years due to their increased weight and short flight times.

The MB-E1 was rebuilt and restored in 2017 with support from FH-Joanneum/Aviation in Graz. The aircraft is expected to be on display at the Austrian Aviation Museum in Graz-Thalerhof (www.luftfahrtmuseum.at) starting in May 2018.