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from Heidenheim delivered the gearbox, Escher/Wyss from
Ravensburg delivered the yaw bearings, Mannesmann delivered the
tower, Porsche parts of the nacelle, and AEG added the generator
plus switch systems. Hütter's team at company Allgaier held the
reigns in hands.
In order to enhance his team for development of the system
Hütter upon recommendation from his team member Eugen
Hänle in February 1955 recruited the construction designer Sepp
Armbrust. Armbrust, born in 1930 in Pecs in Hungary, had studied
at the Technology College in Esslingen. Like Hütter and Hänle
he was a passionate glider pilot. He took part in several German
Championships and later was a member of the German national
gliding team.
Armbrust, who virtually worked all his professional life on
the field of wind energy until his retirement in 1993 after all this
time today still remembers his early days at Allgaier in Uhingen:
“When Erwin Allgaier had announced his intention to visit our
office, Hütter came to Hänle or to me to see who had the most
interesting construction drawings on the table. He took the most
interesting ones and put them on the board in his room to make
sure he had a pretty drawing in the background.” He says Hütter
loved beautiful drawings and was a very capable sketch-drawer
himself. “He was an aesthete, very friendly and charming”
Armbrust characterises the man from Austria. “But he was also very
ambitious”.
This ambition had been awakened by the very challenging
100 kW system. Realising the tenfold of the output of the Allgaier
wind turbines was a giant leap to take. The system was to have a
rotor diameter of 34 m and hence was called W-34. It was meant
to become a giant innovation not only for the wind power industry
but also for the materials technology.
The two rotor blades were each 17 m long, and made of glass-
fibre reinforced plastic. Hütter took over this technology from
glider construction. Ambrust and Hänle tested several glass
fibres and resins for the new blade. They constructed a new resin
dispensing equipment for precise dosage of the resin quantities.
In February 1957 both blades were complete. The first glass-fibre
reinforced plastic blades of this size in the world were a novelty
not only on the wind energy market. At that time, they were the
biggest parts ever made of the new material.
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