WORLD´S LARGEST GLIDER | Nimeta

The world´s largest single seater glider: Nimeta X. Unbelievable wing flex and a glide ratio of about 70:1. We had a look at this extreme glider at Veronica Flying in Namibia.
▶︎ Veronica Flying: www.veronica-flying.de/
Created by Jonathan Steinhoff and Stefan Langer
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#Nimeta #glider

[@kaihorstmann2783]

The sky is *not* the limit but the width of the runway 🙃

[@SteFly]

Great one!!

[@louisfkoorts5590]

😁

[@sakitamasa]

I agree. With just a little deviation from centerline, the wing will hit the trees.

[@1marcelfilms]

Just make wings that extend after taking off

[@Johan-ex5yj]

“Now taking off from runways 09L, 09C and 09R, the Nimeta glider…” Unbelievable! 😃

[@DrHumlae]

Rotflmao

[@eugenelayton5231]

Do they allow a person to use multiple runways with this?

[@soliv27]

Reminds me the joke about that dumb pilots from [choose the neighbors country], being told they were about to land on a little bit short runway.. So they make a monstrous break with smoke and dust, very violent.. " - for sure this is an extremely short runway, but sooo wiiide !!"

[@Johan-ex5yj]

@@soliv27 LOL 😄

[@davidtapp3950]

At Waikerie in South Australia you could have runways several hundred metres wide and long.

[@Jet-Pack]

A long time ago I had the opportunity to circle together with an ETA glider. I managed to beat him to the top with my old standard class glider because it's lighter and had a smaller turning radius than him. But then of course he flew away at 200 kph at what seemed to be level flight and I kept falling at just 150 kph. He had double the wing span and also double the glide ratio. That was fun, really impressive glider!

[@Dzordzikk]

Yes and thats all about gliding ration and excellent L/D at high speeds.

[@skylarkman2000]

Amazing bit of kit .

[@skylarkman2000]

Amazing bit of kit .

[@badrinair]

I stumbled across this channel just few days ago and now I am binge watching all videos. I would love to learn to fly and I think glider is the coolest way to do that.

[@2wayflighttoheaven]

Wow. So big and so beautiful!

[@podunkman2709]

Thank u Stefan for this video!

[@jorissaint-genes8472]

Finally someone making à vidéo about this glider !

[@daytrypper]

Crazy cool! Thanks for posting that video. So envious :)

[@nixl3518]

Very interesting and thank you for this clip. I would’ve also liked a brief description of the engine type and it’s power as well as a bit more on the braking system that you showed us. :-)

[@sergiymarchenko1002]

It's enormous and it's beautiful... breathtaking... speachless...

[@PureGlide]

Very interesting! That thing is massive

[@Xantec]

wider span than a 737!

[@zk1479]

Awesome and beautiful too. Thanks

[@BrianPhillipsRC]

Amazing!

[@huffdaddy3845]

What a beautiful sailplane.

[@dennisk5818]

This is what I like about long wing sailplanes. They are such a beautiful ship to watch. They always appear graceful in flight. I'm curious about some of the flight characteristics like, L/D, best glide speed, handling when close to the ground landing.Are the wings set up for water ballast? Those dive brakes are massive. Are flaps part of the wing?

[@tornagawn]

Beautiful!

[@jimbo4905]

Fantastic!!! Professional documentation !Regards from Paraguay

[@SteFly]

Thank you! 🙏

[@awaisalics1st724]

Passion for the project is amazing

[@flytelaw1]

Stefan, that glider is just freaking gorgeous! I have a question….I wonder about the twisting along the span when ailerons are deflected…..are they partial or graduated or even since with that span given the chord there would be a massive twisting vector over span??. Cheers👌✈️

[@r.guerreiro140]

Good question I'm also interested :)

[@rohansully584]

Yes...scares me! But I suppose it's been working thus far.

[@Dzordzikk]

Manufacurers today know how to make wings that will flex but not twist ...

[@citicolina]

A true bird in the air. Majestic.

[@wearemany73]

Imagine having a glider that has a lower wing loading in the air than on the ground…? 🤪 It’s a magnificent sailplane even without a sustainer but having one really puts the cherry on the cake, 🎂 such endless possibilities. ❤️

[@Fukenbumen]

A fun fact I remember reading about Eta is that they had to replace metal rods for flaps an ailerons with carbon ones because of the expansion of metal at higher temperatures. With 15 m wingspan one wouldn't really notice but for this ship it became a problem. Can anyone confirm?

[@SteFly]

Also the wing flex could have been a problem with the metal rods? I have also seen carbon rods in the HpH production facility for the TwinShark..

[@yannickbourdeau8541]

Very nice splendid and elegant Great Bird with a span like a jetliner ! 🛩

[@chrispollard6568]

Beautiful informative video!

[@SteFly]

Thank you 🙏

[@r.p.3192]

Holy cow! It doesn’t get any better than this… Bruno Gantenbrink and Nimeta…. Next level of craziness would be Hanna Reitsch and Sperber Junior…. provided we’d have a time machine 🤙😉✊👍

[@sebasdediego2855]

PRECIOSO ¡¡ Beautiful ¡¡

[@lenny108]

This must be quite strongly built so that the wings won't fold up and break off from the fuselage. There are surely enormous powers working when a strong wind is bending the wings.

[@Nexai-Lab]

I'm in love ! This glider seems just fantastic :-)

[@Jet-Pack]

Until you have to detach the wings for transport and put everything into a trailer. Then you regret getting a 30m glider.

[@Nexai-Lab]

@@Jet-Pack Indeed ... I did think that also.... But as any extrem stuff it could fantastic but un reasonnable and a bad choice.

[@johnfitzpatrick2469]

G,day Stefan from Sydney Australia. That's some hot terrain!!! 🌏🇦🇺

[@SteFly]

Thanks John!!

[@chrishamilton4999]

Mighty fine landing, too.

[@PixelatedExistence]

Wow........Amazing....I imagine it has very interesting capabilities!

[@biagiocozza8875]

Beautiful sailplane. Would love to fly it.

[@eisenschweinchen5354]

Great glider!

[@BearMeat4Dinner]

Guten Tag! Tolles Video!!!

[@kirkglundal4289]

I enjoy seeing designs pushing the envelope and one could argue the benefits and even the necessity of a flexible wing! However seems a bit much to me, I can see the lower wing in a banked turn flexing more, the upper wing even appears nesrly straight! I bet it rides nice. :)

[@RCRitterFPV]

Gorgeous

[@jhlee1180]

Dont know alot, but that wing looks like its gonna snap lol. Amazing engineering!

[@SuperReasonable]

We have problems on many airfields with our EB28. 31m must be even more restrictive! Well done Bruno..

[@daniochoa2110]

WOW! I would love to own one of those!

[@user-co3qg7dd4k]

Beautiful

[@The_Modeling_Underdog]

What a sight to behold.

[@R.B_B]

Amazing Glider and video. Do you make the drone footage with the DJI mini 2 zoom?

[@randomnickify]

Lool, with that wing flex it's more like the ornitopter than a glider :)

[@freesk8]

Wow, gorgeous! :)

[@bigwaterblue]

Great video!

[@nestortafah3311]

Very innovative

[@arminmoller9927]

Wahnsinn,wie lang der Segeler am Ende des Videos zum Ausschweben brauchte. Das technisch machbare scheint nun ausgereizt.

[@darlingtonmachona2010]

Beautiful plane.

[@tsoiken1591]

Beautiful Amazing

[@tdenkrew]

Wat a flex wing :)

[@blackbirdpie217]

I can only imagine turns are very tricky, where you must avoid a tight radius with those ultra long wings. The Wright brothers found this out with their very slow, large span early planes where the wingtip of the inside, or low wing dipped below stall speed, causing a stall/spin. I see this effect is pronounced with such a long span.

[@CMAenergy]

It is not the inside wing that stalls It is the outer wing because of the angle of attack achieved,

[@Jet-Pack]

@@CMAenergy Well actually the angle of attack is similar on both wings but you need aileron to avoid falling into the turn because the inner wing creates less lift. That aileron deflection can reduce the stall angle of attack and so the inner wing can actually stall first and most gliders I flew had this tendency. If you use a slight side slip during the turn, outer wing trailing, then you reduce the amount of aileron deflection and rudder deflection which reduces the overall drag and it has less tendency to fall into the turn and less risk of stalling the inner wing. Stalling the outer wing would basically just bring you wings level during recovery where as stalling the inner wing can cause some serious upset attitude.

[@jawadulhaq8492]

Amazing

[@nob0dy27_]

was ein geiles gerät aber ich glaube auch die doppelten bremsklappen alleine reichen bei dem ding nicht zur landung 🤣ich kenns nur von der 25 aber diese riesenflieger kriegt man ja eigentlich nie ohne wölbklappen gescheit auf den boden 😅

[@RobertAlexanderRM]

This bird is magnificent, awesome, although I’d prefer a smaller, nimbler ship. Never flew in Namibia but don’t particularly like blue days without visual clues. Is it often like this? Is is more thermal or there’s also ridge along the coast? Thanks great video

[@fredread9216]

Absolutely amazing. What is the L/D.

[@footsy420]

at the end I was waiting for it to lean on to the wing. I guess one has to keep it very level on the ground especially when its going slow.

[@ashleycole6412]

Nice thing it has 1 to 70 gliding ratio and that's so cool specially with own flight motor . By the way? Do you have any idea to visit the gliders factory and make new tour again ??

[@norbertk.1473]

Das ist ja voll elegant. Der fliegt wie ein Engel

[@r.guerreiro140]

Amazing! I just would like to know what's the material used on the wings

[@ongunyucesan8489]

Great! We need süper cavitating attack angle, and a same süper cavitation nose

[@saxpert]

Alter Falter, ich würde schon beim Start einfädeln, spätestens aber bei der Landung. Happy landings.

[@thomaswolf3740]

interesting way to retract the wheel (at 0:42) 😆

[@mikehaynes5634]

And I was worried the first time I flew my D2C with 18M tips on a 24M wide runway with a road on one side and 2M corn on the other side. Foolish me...

[@cabanford]

Wow, thats so kool. 31 m is insane! (I fly an Enzo3 paraglider, with a measly 14.5 m wingspan)

[@XC_Tom]

more like 11m if you account the high arc

[@cabanford]

@@XC_Tom flat, obviously! Sometimes gets down to a few meters after a nice collapse on full bar 🥳🥳🥳

[@Kneedragon1962]

Namibia, huh? That does look very VERY much like western NSW / Australia, some place around Dubbo. The colours, the look of the vegetation, the red sand ... If you told me that was Broken Hill or Mildura, I wouldn't think to question it. The glider. Crikey! I'd be scared to fly that. I'm too ham-fisted. I'd rip the wings off that in the first day ... 70:1 glide ~ that's just supernatural. The gliders I learned to fly, had a ratio about 16:1 ~ 20:1, on a good day.The joystick I could handle with my right thumb & forefinger. The rudder ~ I think I'd need power steering for that. It has an engine, you could do hydraulic assist .... I'm trying to imagine what the Dutch Roll would be like with 4 ~ 6x the span and mass and inertia I had... My legs are not that strong, they're really not. I know they're not optimal for performance, but I think I'd want differential ailerons on that. I either get Spoilerons, or I get a powered rudder. You want to do what? You want to put 2 or 3 tonnes of water in the wings, and then fly it? What's your Reynolds number? I think it's 9-1-1 in America. It's triple Oh in Australia ... Dunno what it is in Namibia ~

[@aswaniasokan9156]

Amazing....

[@yeetaero4978]

Amazing glider. Must be a nightmare to trailer and tow :P

[@thomasfischer1017]

Magic...Glider⭐🛩⭐👍⭐🌞⭐

[@Dzordzikk]

Hi Stefan, can you compare this glider performance with most modern 18meter gliders? How good or how bad are they competetive?

[@ZWD2011]

You can see by the wings if you are correctly centered in a thermal ;-)

[@LDDFPV]

very nice video, who made the drone shots?

[@viggo48sam]

Det er vildt🏁❤️🇩🇰

[@louisfkoorts5590]

Majestic, is what comes to mind. 👙 🍦 - - - - - - - Namibia, what a treasure... Thank you Stefan.

[@jaysonmendoza-lh3hy]

have a safe fly

[@keithdouglass3618]

👍🐨🌏 great mate .yes .experiment. go for it . go up. good flying. Keith Australia

[@witheringleaves5431]

What's the music at the end? It's the cherry on top of this amazing video

[@PyccoloSantos]

I always wondered what kind of material the fuselage is made in this type of glider.

[@ildarmingazov2304]

Красивый планёр!

[@WB4kMlLzuck48oseKkk]

Wow

[@stanleydenning]

Wow!

[@majojose307]

Nice

[@jamesa5720]

Just beautiful but so was my old faithful 1-26B, ha. This kind of reminds me of the scene in There's Something About Mary when the serial killer has invented the 7-minute abs to outsell the 8-min ab videos. So, who is going to come out with a 32m glider?

[@katsudonisyummy4240]

Dein Akzent ist so stark, dass ich die ersten 5 Sekunden dachte du sprichst deutsch

[@soaruk3697]

Thought it now had modded tips? - so not truly an 'Eta wing' ?... Can remember how disappointed Hans Werner was when he could not fly with Janus Centka in the original Eta at Leszno in 2003...., of course he ended up in 2nd place behind a Nimbus 4 flown by Holger Bach.....

[@SteFly]

Yes, the wingtips or even the outer wings are modified compared to the Eta. But I don't know the exact details. Perhaps someone has more information about it?

[@Floziii]

The outer wing was modified in 2015 by Streifender, now the plane has 3 different wingtips

[@genghisthegreat2034]

Sehr schöne machine

[@speedycpu]

Any recommendations for gliders for big people? Hoping not only the wingspan is big but cockpit too. I'm 6'5" (196cm) and 285 lbs (130kg). Any gliders that I can safely fit in? Last time I flew was when I was 14, so was smaller at that time. Suggestions?

[@jeanlebon7378]

I have already seen such glider in a Tex Avery cartoon

[@user-yt4mm4db3b]

Does it have a record aerodynamic quality, or are there gliders with higher ones? Interesting technical characteristics: weight, speed

[@attaboy201]

Lovly

[@jumpingjacks5558]

Beautiful sail plane. Just asking: What is the point of having such a large wingspan?

[@PaulFurber]

To oversimplify: when a wing produces lift, it also produces some drag called induced drag at the wingtips. Keeping them small and as far away from the wing root as possible makes a glider's wing very efficient by reducing the induced drag.

[@jumpingjacks5558]

@@PaulFurber Thank you very much.

[@stijnvandamme76]

@@PaulFurber but that explains why gliders have thin wings in general, it does not explain why this one one has 31 meter wingspan vs others with 16 or 20 meters wingspan.. Its the only one of its kind, so why did they build this one.. and why doesn't anybody else fly such big wingspans

[@rogeratygc7895]

@@stijnvandamme76 I would suggest: (1) cost, and (2) Where can you land it? There must be a large area free of obstructions. Few airfields and fewer fields would be possible landing places.

[@christiandavid4385]

Wie läuft das mit der Zulassung/certificate of airworthness???

[@SteFly]

Soweit ich weiß ist die Nimeta mittlerweile EASA zugelassen.

[@Flieger124]

@@SteFly die Nimeta wird komplett zugelassen wie ein normaler Motorsegler. Die Zulassung ist aber noch nicht ganz abgeschlossen. Das SLW ist im Vergleich zum N4 20cm höher und das was man oben auf der Seitenflosse sieht ist ein zusätzlicher Massenausgleich gegen das flattern. Der neue Aussenflügel hat eine höhere Streckung> FB höher und der eta typische Tiefensprung wurde entfernt.

[@Xantec]

those wings are bigger than the blades on electricity windmills! I bet it soars nicely

[@normaal4663]

google GWH252-16MW This will dwarf the wings of nimeta x

[@largelarry2126]

The wing must be one peace.

[@christianajengkuh4672]

My first time of seeing this

[@urbanlife2091]

Cool

[@PaulFurber]

Amazing piece of engineering. What's the glide ratio?

[@DumbledoreMcCracken]

"Yes"

[@ben3989]

1 flight around the world:1

[@TheErilaz]

70:1

[@PaulFurber]

@@TheErilaz Thank you.

[@Aspartame69]

how does this land consistently without tipping and clipping the wings on the ground?

[@ottoolsen9560]

not the best for aerobatics, but for just surfing around in the sky im sure it is great.

[@soaringtube6446]

Crazy🤪

[@warrenchinn9015]

The aspect ratio must be 'considerable'. What is the chord of that wing?

[@VictorSiberian]

Sop what's different from gliders with ordinary length of wings? How does longer/bigger span of wings influence the flight characteristics? Does it make easier for a pilot to gain elevation (i.e more efficiently use ascending torrents of the Earth)?

[@markoposavec9240]

It's mostly improving the glide ratio which improves the distance covered when gliding in a straight line and possibly improves climbing in big thermals. However I think you need good conditions for it, smaller craft with good minimum sink might perform better in trickier conditions.

[@VictorSiberian]

@@markoposavec9240 Yes! thank you.. i was thinking this way, too