diff --git a/simgear/misc/CMakeLists.txt b/simgear/misc/CMakeLists.txt
index 00c7e978..6b4790af 100644
--- a/simgear/misc/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/simgear/misc/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -63,9 +63,13 @@ add_executable(test_path path_test.cxx )
 add_test(path ${EXECUTABLE_OUTPUT_PATH}/test_path)
 target_link_libraries(test_path ${TEST_LIBS})
 
+add_executable(test_utf8tolatin1 utf8tolatin1_test.cxx )
+add_test(utf8tolatin1 ${EXECUTABLE_OUTPUT_PATH}/test_utf8tolatin1)
+target_link_libraries(test_utf8tolatin1 ${TEST_LIBS})
+
 endif(ENABLE_TESTS)
 
 add_boost_test(SVGpreserveAspectRatio
   SOURCES SVGpreserveAspectRatio_test.cxx
   LIBRARIES ${TEST_LIBS}
-)
\ No newline at end of file
+)
diff --git a/simgear/misc/utf8tolatin1_test.cxx b/simgear/misc/utf8tolatin1_test.cxx
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..9b6049ef
--- /dev/null
+++ b/simgear/misc/utf8tolatin1_test.cxx
@@ -0,0 +1,30 @@
+#include "strutils.hxx"
+#include <iostream>
+#include <string>
+
+int main()
+{
+    std::string utf8_string1 = "Zweibr\u00FCcken";
+    //valid UTF-8, convertible to Latin-1
+    std::string latin1_string1 = "Zweibr\374cken";
+    //Latin-1, not valid UTF-8
+    std::string utf8_string2 = "\u600f\U00010143";
+    //valid UTF-8, out of range for Latin-1
+    
+    std::string output_string1u = simgear::strutils::utf8ToLatin1(utf8_string1);
+    if (output_string1u.compare(latin1_string1)){
+        std::cerr << "Conversion fail: "
+        << output_string1u << "!=" << latin1_string1;
+        return 1;
+    }
+    std::string output_string1l = simgear::strutils::utf8ToLatin1(latin1_string1);
+    if (output_string1l.compare(latin1_string1)){
+        std::cerr << "Non-conversion fail: "
+        << output_string1l << "!=" << latin1_string1;
+        return 1;
+    }
+    std::string output_string3 = simgear::strutils::utf8ToLatin1(utf8_string2);
+    //we don't check the result of this one as there is no right answer,
+    //just make sure it doesn't crash/hang
+    return 0;
+}