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Saturday 22 November 2014

162) The “25 Euro Silver-Niobium Coin Series: (v) 2003 onwards minted by the Austrian Mint: Fifth Coin in the Series: “Austrian Aviators” (2007):



162) The “25 Euro Silver-Niobium Coin Series: (v) 2003 onwards minted by the Austrian Mint by using Niobium and Niobium metal insertion technology for the first time anywhere in the World of Numismatics:

Fifth Coin in the Series: “Austrian Aviators” (2007):

Austrian Aviators:

In 1907, Franz Xaver Wels flew several hundred metres with the kidney shaped “Zanonia glider”. Ignaz “Igo” Etrich developed the glider into a recognisable aeroplane called the “Taube” (the Dove) because of its bird-like wings and tail. With this machine, in 1910, Etrich’s colleague Karl Illner made the first successful motorised flight in Austria from Wiener Neustadt to Vienna and back.

Ignaz “Igo” Etrich (25.12.1879 – 04.02.1967):

He was an Austrian flight pioneer, pilot and fixed wing aircraft developer.

He went to school at Leipzig and also studied the works of Otto Lilienthal and got interested in aviation and problems of bird flight.
                     A model of the Otto Lilienthal Glider

 (Otto Lilienthal was a German pioneer of aviation who became known as the “Glider King”. He was the first person to make well-documented, repeated, successful gliding flights which led to influencing scientific and public opinion about the possibility of flying machines becoming practical. He died of injuries sustained during a glider flight, when his glider stalled and he was unable to regain control. Berlin’s busiest airport, Berlin Tegel “Otto Lilienthal” Airport is named after him).

With his father, a factory owner, Ignaz Etrich built a laboratory for researching and developing aeroplanes. His father acquired some advanced gliders of the time for him. After Franz Xaver Wels, a colleague, and he had studied the books of Prof. F. Ahlborn about the flying seeds of Zanonia macrocarpa (or the Javan cucumber belonging to the pumpkin family from the tropical Asian forests of the Malay Archipelago and the Indonesian islands. The unusual winged seed or “samara” of this species spans about 13 cms can glide for great distances. It can move through the air like a butterfly in flight – it gains height, stalls, dips and accelerates once again producing lift, a process termed “phugoid” oscillation”), he worked together with Wels and Karl Illner (both of whom became well-known pioneers in the design and development of flying craft) to develop his first gliders called “Zanonia” inspired by the seeds of “Zanonia macrocarpa”.
        
             Images of the "Zanonia macrocarpa" seed

This seed was, also, the inspiration for the 1904 stable wing planform designed by Igo Etrich (In aviation, a planform is the shape and layout of a fixed-wing aircraft’s fuselage and wing. Planforms are grouped into low speed flight (found on general aviation aircraft) and those used for high speed flight (found on military aircraft and airliners).

In 1906, Karl Illner became the first Austrian to fly an Austrian-built glider.

Next, Igo Etrich set up a second laboratory in the Weiner Prater at the Rotunda, Vienna.

In 1907, he built an aircraft the Etrich I, (nicknamed the “Praterspatz” or the “Prater Park Sparrow”), in his new research facility. Due to the low power of the motor and limited space for flying, this aircraft initially proved to be unsuccessful.
                                     An image of the Etrich I

In 1908, Frans Xaver Wels visited Paris and witnessed the first successful flight of the Wright Brothers Bi-plane. Upon his return, he suggested to Etrich to change their concept of trying to fly a mono-plane and instead research the designs of bi-planes.  Wels separated himself from Etrich and worked as an independent inventor, as Etrich was still keen on building a monoplane. Karl Illner and Pavel Podgornik joined Etrich, in his continuing his work on monoplanes.

In 1909, Etrich rented two hangars (or aircraft sheds as they were called) and continued to develop his design, the “Taube” (Dove).

In 1910, Etrich and his team successfully built a second monoplane called the Etrich II or Etrich “Taube” (Dove) which crashed in its maiden flight, in which Etrich nearly broke his back.

Etrich continued with his development of the “Taube”, and in view of Etrich’s serious accident while testing the Etrich II, Karl Illmer made all the test flights on the aircraft from now on.

One of the specifications that Etrich and his team worked upon was the requirement of the military that an aircraft should be able to successfully land on a freshly plowed field.

In 1912, Etrich founded “Etrich Fliegerwerke” in Liebau (present day Lubawka, Poland) and designed an aircraft with an enclosed cabin for passengers, which he called the “Luft-Limousine”. This was the first airliner with an enclosed cab.

Later, moving to Germany, Etrich founded Brandenburgische Flugzeugwerke which he sold in 1914 under the name of Hansa-Brandenburg.

The second version of the “Taube” was patented in Austria. Due to its excellent performance, Etrich signed a licensed production agreement with another aircraft designer Edmund Rumpler who modified the design of the Taube slightly, claiming to be the developer of this model called the “Rumpler Taube” and refused to pay licensing fees to Etrich.

When World War I broke out, Etrich made the design of his Taube freely available and dropped the law-suit against Rumpler.

After World War I, Etrich moved to Czechoslovakia where he built the “Sport-Taube” which was faster than any Czechoslovak military plane of the time. This aeroplane was promptly confiscated by the authorities on the pretext that he had built the plane for smuggling purposes.

In 1955, Etrich received the “Order of Merit Bendesverdienstkreuz” of the Federal Republic of Germany.

In 1959, Igo Etrich was awarded the “Prize Karl Renner”.  In Vienna, a district is named after him.

The Etrich Limousine and the Wels/Etrich Zanonia glider and Sport-Taube are exhibited in the National Technical Museum in Prague, while the Etrich II is exhibited at the “Technisches Museum” in Vienna.

Franz Xaver Wels (18.02.1873-18.10.1940):

Franz Xaver Wels attended secondary modern school in Graz and finished handicraft school as an industrial engineer in 1891.

From 1893 to 1891, he served in the Army, after which he spent some time in England.

In 1900 Wels got into aviation engineering.

In 1901, his interest in flying machines led him to a meeting with the Austrian aviation pioneer Wilhelm Kress in which Wels offered to fly Kress’s aircrafts, but Kress was reluctant to let anyone take the role of a pioneer in flying an engine aircraft. However, following the recommendation of Kress, Wels got an assignment with Igo Etrich in Trutnov (Czech Republic) to research literature on flying machines. He worked for several years with Etrich, who himself, was a pioneer in the field of aircraft designing and flight. Wels found an interesting piece of information in publications/books of F. Ahlborn from Hamburg in which Ahlborn wrote about the flying seeds of “Zanonia macrocarpa”. Wels developed the research further and created several models of gliders, ultimately coming up with one which had a range of six metres which proved to be the first successful gliding experiment in the “Zanonia macrocarpa”. Later he could fly this glider for several hundred feet.

On 03.03.1905, further studies led Igo Etrich and Franz Wels’ patent of a “flying machine” – which had wings, propellers and one engine which was designed by Wels. First, the airplane was tested without the engine, as a glider with a range of 15 metres, but it proved to be unstable.

In 1907, they tested a smaller motor airplane the “Etrich I” which too was unsuccessful.

On 02.10.1907, Wels using a scientifically remodelled glider was successful in flying the machine.

In 1908, Wels visited Paris and witnessed the first successful flight of the Wright Brothers Bi-plane. Upon his return, he suggested to Etrich to change their concept of trying to fly a monoplane.

Meanwhile, Wels separated himself from Etrich and worked as an independent inventor, as Etrich was still insisting on building a monoplane, resulting in a difference of opinion between them.

Between 1905 and 1938, Wels patented some 33 inventions but had no major commercial success with them.

When he was still associated with Etrich, he built the propeller-driven snowmobile.

During World War I, he was assigned to a hospital for seriously wounded personnel and civilians and he got interested in Prosthetics and designed and patented prostheses for such persons.

Also, during this time, he got involvement with Etrich in the field of bionics and he studied the movement of fish.

In the 1920s, he was associated in researching and designing mechanisms for improving sporting and transport facilities. During this period, he designed and patented several aircraft and amphibious vehicle designs.

In 1934, Wels set up an experimental workshop and devoted himself to developing the “cyclodal aircraft” which was a kind of helicopter with a horizontal rotor.

In 1935, he patented his invention but could not finance the construction of the prototype. His last invention was a fin-drive.

He passed away in Vienna shortly afterwards in an impoverished state, a forgotten genius, who had spent a lifetime trying to master aircrafts and motorising and speeding up  land and amphibious crafts, as well as making life easier for those who had lost/injured  their limbs, through his pioneering work in Prosthetics, among his other researches.

Karl Illner (14.07.1877-06.08.1935):
            A signed photo of Karl Illmer in the cockpit of his aircraft
He was an Austrian aviation pioneer. He was a pilot and  employee of Igo Etrich.

On 08.08.1909, he had a successful flight with the Etrich I (nicknamed the “Prater Sparrow”), the first flight going a distance of 40 metres at a height of 4 metres.

On 17.05.1910, he completed the first Austrian cross-country flight from Wiener Neustadt to Vienna and back.

On 18.09.1910, at an International Air Competition held in Wiener Neustadt, he walked away with almost all the first prizes.

On 10.10.1910, he flew a cross-country flight from Vienna to Horn and back. To commemorate this achievement, the municipality of Horn in Lower Austria, erected a memorial stone in his honour.

He participated in several air shows in Berlin and Budapest, where he was an extremely popular aviator.

The 2007 “25 Euro Silver-Niobium Coin – Austrian Aviators”:
 The Obverse of the 25 Euro Silver-Niobium coin shows the inside of a cockpit of a modern passenger aircraft with the control panels and windscreens. On the upper periphery on the silver outer ring is inscribed the country name “Republik Osterreich” (“Republic of Austria”) and on the lower periphery is mentioned the denomination of the coin “25 Euro”. On the right is mentioned the year of issue “2007”. 
 The colour of the Niobium insert (pill) is turquoise.

On the Reverse of the 25 Euro Silver-Niobium coin both the aircraft, the kidney shaped Zanonia glider and the Taube, with its bird-like wings and tail, feature in the Niobium core on the reverse of this coin, with the Zanonia glider spilling over onto the silver outer ring.

Karl Illner is shown waving from the cockpit of the “Taube” just before the historic flight, part of the craft spilling over onto the silver outer ring as well. On the bottom of the silver ring is given the signature of “Igo Etrich”. The silver outer ring bears the inscription “Luftahrt in Oesterreich” (meaning “Aviation in Austria”). 
The specifications of the coin are:

Face value: 25 Euros; Metallic composition: Outer ring: Silver (Ag) 900 – 9 gms, Niobium 998 – 6.50 gms; Diameter: 34 mm; Weight: 16.50 gms; Edge: smooth.

The mintage of this coin was limited to a maximum of 65000 pieces. 


The following coins have been issued in this Series:

2003 – 700 years of  Hall City in Tyrol or Tirol.

2004 – 150 years Semmering Alpine Railway

2005 – 50 years of Television

2006 – The European Satellite Navigation

2007 – Austrian Aviators

2008 – Fascinating light

2009 – Year of Astronomy

2010 – Renewable Energy Sources.

2011 – Robotics

2012 – Bionics

2013 – Drilling tunnels

2014 - Evolution
2015 - Cosmology



Links:

1) The 25 Euro Silver-Niobium Coin Series issued by the Austrian Mint: First Coin: "700 Years of Hall City in Tirol or Tyrol"







Links to posts on Federal Republic of Germany issues and other posts on this blog:




For posts on COTY (Coin of the Year) winners since 2015 in a competition held by Krause Publications of Germany, please visit the following links:






4 comments:

  1. Choudhary Roy S has commented:
    "The coin is so nicely designed ...
    Color is very good..!!"

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It is indeed so. The Designers & master engravers of this coin Series have done a brilliant job.

      Delete
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