Edmund Schneider, who manufactured at Grunau in Silesia, Germany before World War II, moved to Australia after the war with his two sons and this single-seat general purpose club sailplane was commissioned by the Gliding Federation of Australia.

The prototype Arrow flew for the first time on 14 April 1962, and completed its airworthiness trials on 7 May that year.

The cantilever high-set plywood-covered wooden wing has ‘bumpers’ at the tips and a forward sweep of 3° at the spar; there are wooden scissor-type air brakes at the 45% chord line and flaps are not fitted, the wooden ailerons being ply-covered. A one piece wing designed by Edmund’s son Harry. The fuselage is plywood-covered semimonocoque and the tail unit a ply-covered cantilever wooden structure. There is a non-retractable monowheel with a band brake, and a foam rubber-sprung nose skid forward of it which has a steel shoe; there is also a spring steel tailskid. The pilot sits under a sideways-opening Perspex canopy, and is provided with cushions and a sunshade; extra instrumentation can be installed if required.

Small-scale production was put in hand, and 10 Arrows had been built by 1966, the latest production version being the ES 59 Series 2, which had a shorter swept fin and rudder than the initial production aircraft.

A two-piece 15 m wing version was contructed for the 1965 World Championships.

No. Built: 10

Wing span: 13.23m / 43.4ft
Wing area: 11sq.m / 118.3sq.ft
Aspect ratio: 16
Airfoil: NACA 63-618 mod.
Empty Weight: 174kg / 383lb
Payload: 106kg / 233lb
Gross Weight: 280kg / 616lb
L/DMax: 30 89 kph / 48 kt / 55 mph
MinSink: 0.82 m/s / 2.7 fps / 1.60 kt
Wing Load: 25.45kg/sq.m / 5.2lb/sq.ft
Seats: 1

ES 59 Series 2
Span: 43 ft 5 in
Length: 22 ft 2.5 in
Height: 4 ft 7 in
Wing area: 118.3 sqft
Aspect ratio: 16.0
Empty weight: 375 lb
Max weight: 616 lb
Max speed: 148 mph
Max aero-tow speed: 80 mph
Min sinking speed: 2.7 ft/sec at 46 mph
Best glide ratio: 28:1 at 51 mph

After the war Edmund Schneider, one of the pioneer prewar German sailplane designers and co-creator and manufacturer of the Grunau Baby trainer, was invited by the Gliding Federation of Australia to set up a sailplane factory in that country, and so he transferred his operations there, Edmund Schneider Pty Ltd being duly formed as a private venture at Parafield airport near Adelaide, South Australia. Its first design here was the Kangaroo two-seater, which first flew in 1953, and this was followed by an improved version of the Baby, the Grunau Baby 4, the Nymph and Kingfisher, and the ES 52 Kookaburra two-seater side-by-side trainer, which was used by most of the Australian gliding clubs and is semi-aerobatic. Of conventional wooden construction, the ES 52 Kookaburra first flew in prototype form on 20 June 1954, and four Mk Is, eleven Mk IIs and eight Mk IIIs were built. The ES 52B Kookabura IV, which first flew in 1959, featured an increased wing span of 48ft 9in, a nose wheel in place of the rubber-sprung wooden nose skid ahead of the monowheel, a brake for the monowheel and an enlarged cockpit.

By early 1966 a total of 23 Mk IVs had been built, and production ceased when Schneider decided to build the Schleicher Ka 7 two seater under licence. The Mk III’s cantilever high-set one-piece wing is a single-spar wooden structure with a D-section plywood leading edge and fabric covering; there are wooden scissor-type air brakes above and below each wing, and the sealed-gap ailerons are fabric-covered. The fuselage is a plywood-covered semi-monocoque made up of wooden frames and stringers, and there is a non-retractable unsprung monowheel, without a brake on the Mks I-III, these versions having the nose skid and the Mk IV a nose wheel; all Marks have a tailskid. The tail unit is a fabric-covered wooden structure, with a trim tab in the port elevator. The one-piece Perspex canopy hinges rearwards to open, and the two pilots sit in slightly staggered side-by-side seats; there is also a window on each side under the leading edge wing root to improve visibility. Extra instrumentation can be fitted if the customer so desires.

ES 52 Kookaburra
Wing span: 11.7 m / 38 ft 4.5 in
Length: 7.9 m / 25 ft 11 in
Height: 1.38m / 4ft 6.5 in
Wing area: 15.0 sq.m / 161.5 sq ft
Wing section: Gottingen 549/M-12
Aspect ratio: 9.13
Empty weight: 220 kg / 485 lb
Max weight: 393 kg / 866 lb
Water ballast: None
Max wing loading: 26.2 kg/sq.m / 5.36 lb/sq ft
Max speed: 119 kt / 220 km/h
Stalling speed: 36 kt / 67 km/h
Min sinking speed: 1.05 m/sec / 3.4 ft/sec at 39 kt / 72 km/h
Max rough air speed: 81.5 kt / 151 km/h
Best glide ratio: 20 at 44 kt / 81 km/h

ES52 Mk.III
Span: 38ft 5in
Length: 25ft 11 in
Height: 4ft 6.5 in
Wing area: 161.5sqft
Aspect ratio: 9.13
Empty weight: 484lb
Max weight: 865lb
Max speed: 136mph (in smooth air)
Max aero-tow speed: 70mph
Min sinking speed: 3.36ft/sec at 45mph
Best glide ratio: 20:1 at 50 mph

Designer: Edmund Schneider

No. Built: 8

Wing span: 16.03m
Wing area: 21.8sq.m
Aspect ratio: 11.79
Airfoil: Go 549
Empty Weight: 277 kg
Gross Weight: 480 kg
Wing Load: 22kg/sq.m
L/DMax: 24 70 kph
MinSink: 0.85 m/s 65 kph
Seats: 2