Passion Project is Expected to Reach the Skies in the Second Quarter of 2026

The work of Elfin.aero founder Dr. Reiner Stemme, who passed on October 31, 2025, is already being reignited to honor the designer’s years of dedication to the still-unfinished elfin20: a high-performance, two-seat, self-launching electric glider. Development of the prototype is well underway, and the first flight is targeted for the second quarter of 2026.

“The elfin20 was Reiner's heartfelt project,” explained Dr. Wolfgang Stemme, Managing Director of elfin.aero. “The fact that he was able to witness the positive progress of recent weeks gave him great joy and visible peace. We will carry on this project – and much of what he initiated – in his spirit.”

Dr. Stemme spent more than six decades pursuing the concept of a glider that could launch itself, cruise efficiently, and retain the handling purity that soaring pilots crave. The primary barrier to this reality was combining powered flight with uncompromised soaring performance. Stemme solved this problem by placing the engine mid-fuselage and using a driveshaft to actuate a retractable nose-mounted propeller, separating power from drag in a way no one had even dreamed of.

The idea became the technological backbone of the STEMME S10, which launched in 1990 and earned Stemme the Otto Lilienthal Medal along with a Popular Mechanics Award. In the following decades, Stemme expanded his design efforts into new materials, improved aerodynamics, and increasingly refined propulsion systems.

The final chapter of Stemme’s design career was the elfin. The electric, self-launching, side-by-side two-seater carried forward every major idea he had spent a lifetime perfecting. The aircraft uses a 65 kW nose-mounted electric motor, a redesigned three-blade collapsible propeller, improved folding wings, and a modern battery system that supports over an hour of powered flight. With an optional range extender, the aircraft can cover up to 600 nautical miles.

Even in his eighties, Stemme remained heavily involved in the elfin20’s prototype development, working with engineers and suppliers as the aircraft reached final assembly. According to elfin.aero, the aircraft’s first flight is planned for the second quarter of 2026, and the company intends to continue the work exactly as Stemme directed.

FMI: www.elfin.aero