A window cleaner's hang glider, carried to night practice by public transport

The same Stasi dossier of May 1985 records a second glider plan in Berlin that autumn. Its subject was a 26-year-old glass and building cleaner without a regular job. In mid-1983 he obtained materials, above all aluminium tubes, and after studying literature and making calculations he designed and built a first hang glider from October 1983.

From July 1984 he built a second, improved glider. In September and October 1984 he made several practice flights at night on the outskirts of Berlin; to get there he took the roughly 25-kilogram craft apart and carried it on public transport. He had already obtained an MZ motorcycle engine to convert it into a motor glider.

For the start he had scouted the high-rise blocks in the Leipziger Straße in Berlin-Mitte; according to the Stasi, the outskirts of the capital were later also considered as a launch site. On 24 October 1984 he practised hanging from parts of the glider in the attic of a house that was being renovated.

On 25 October 1984 a member of the public reported that parts, probably of a glider, were being stored in that attic. The Stasi launched a search for the owner and arrested him on 27 October 1984, before the planned start at the end of 1984.