"The Wagner family of five (children aged 17, 16, and 6) intended to escape from East Germany with this aircraft in 1981. The aircraft was never flown because the family was arrested the day before they planned to take off. They were convicted of 'Blatant preparation of an illegal border crossing' and received jail sentences. After intercession by Austrian politicians, the family was deported to West Germany after one year in prison.
In the court proceedings, the East German Aviation Inspectorate confirmed the aircraft's airworthiness. The actual flight over the inner-German border to Hof was to have been preceded by a test flight without passengers. It was to have taken off from the shut-down Nonnewitz brown coal open strip mine near Leipzig.
Due to the obvious secrecy necessary, only readily available materials were used in construction. The largest section is just four meters long. This made it possible to transport the aircraft to the take-off site in a car trailer. The East German Ministry for Nat