Günter Hoppe qualified for his second F3A World Championship in Springfield in 1977. To do so, he needed a new competition aircraft. No sooner said than done, together with his mate. His Sultan aerobatic models, which he had used until then, served as the basis. They built a prototype and then produced a mould.
Here is a little bit of history, as told by Guenter:
The forefather of the Hoppe Sultans was the ‘Mustang’. This was Guenter’s first self-designed model in 1965. He competed with it for the first time in the German championship in 1967.
Guenter didn’t like the Mustang very much, so he set to work and designed a new model aircraft, which he called ‘Sultan’.
The Sultan underwent continuous development. He built its successor for the 1973 World Cup, but the model was not used at the World Cup because Günter Hoppe was only nominated as a substitute for this World Cup.
For the 1975 World Championships in Bern, he built three further developed ‘Sultan 3’ boats: he immediately achieved an outstanding 10th place in the final rankings at these World Championships.
After that, he was nominated for the 1977 F3A World Championship, so he had to modernise his Sultan once again.
He opted for a fiberglas fuselage.
He built a new master model and the corresponding fiberglas moulds with Guenther Metterhausen. It was ready in time for the season. The new model is to be called ‘Sultan 5’. Unlike the Sultan 3, the new aircraft had a tailplane made of foam and balsa wood.
Initially, Guenter Hoppe manufactured fuselages for the aeroplane himself for close friends. However, Guenter was fully occupied with his professional life, so he was unable to satisfy all ‘fuselage requests’. Therefore, his friend took over the manufacturing and distribution.
Guenter Metterhausen also manufactured the corresponding foam wings and tail units.
Günter Metterhausen has been enjoying his well-deserved retirement for several years now and has handed over production of the kits to Peter Adolfs (PAF Flugmodellbau). The kits are still available from PAF today. The ‘Sultan 5’ has now been around for 50 years.
Nowadays, more and more pilots are equipping their ‘Sultans’ with electric drives.
Specifications:
Wingspan: 1.62 metres
Fuselage length: 1.5 metres
Drive: combustion engine or electric drive
Flying weight: 3–4 kg
(depending on motorisation)
