Hauksbee Posted February 25, 2016 Posted February 25, 2016 'Was watching a Netflix series on famous feuds in history, (i.e., William Randolph Hearst vs Joseph Pulitzer : newspapers, Steve Jobs vs Bill Gates : computers) and there was a section on the Wright Brothers vs Glenn Curtiss. It was pretty sloppy scholarship, but some interesting film footage. At one point the narrator says that the Wrights were not the first, or only, to try flying. There were others, but the big stumbling block was control of the aircraft; at which point they show a clip that has a glider zooming in from the right, pulls up steeply into a loop and at the top, the plane goes in one direction, and the pilot in another. It was a very dramatic clip but it was not Wright era (or pre-Wright) It looks to me to be a 'Primary Glider' type that was common in flying clubs in 1930's Germany. . Quote
Olham Posted February 25, 2016 Posted February 25, 2016 (edited) This COULD be a German trainer sailplane from the 30s - see the images in this website: http://www.klassiker-der-luftfahrt.de/geschichte/flugzeuge/segelflugausbildung-bis-1945/555390#1-555294 But, as you will see, the scholars have been wearing seat belts. No idea what happened in your picture, Hauksbee. Edited February 26, 2016 by Olham Quote
Hauksbee Posted February 26, 2016 Author Posted February 26, 2016 Oh dear - were they over water? It would appear to me that they were near a lake, but not over it. Even if the pilot was over water, that's a long fall and most likely would be fatal. Quote
Hauksbee Posted March 8, 2016 Author Posted March 8, 2016 Very nice. It reminds me of flying gliders in State College (a university town in Pennsylvania). In the mid-sixties a few local pilots decided to form a Glider Club. (There was a smallish grass field in town) I joined and flew for two summers. We all trained on a Schweizer 222. It look a lot like the SG38 except that it had a full fuselage, canopy, and carried two. The Student sat in front. We launched with a winch: a huge Oldsmobile engine on a two-wheeled trailer and a big spool of cable. Reel out the cable, clip it on to the glider, wave a flag, and the winch operator would engage the clutch, and off you go! About one third of the way down the field, the center-wheel would lift off and the pilot would haul the stick back sharply and start to climb. In the first one third of the ascent, the angle between you and the winch is pretty flat and you accelerate (and climb) briskly. But the higher you get, the angle increases until, at the end, you're directly above the winch which is pulling you down more than than forward. That's the release point. During that last third of the ascent, the wings would be protesting mightily. They'd be making "wobble-wobble-wobble" sounds called "oil-canning". It was unnerving until you got used to it. Still, I was always happy to pull the release knob and get quit of the cable. Quote
Olham Posted March 8, 2016 Posted March 8, 2016 (edited) So you steered the sailplanes yourself? That is a great feeling, I know. I was once on board as a guest of a two-seat sailplane. The seats were beside each other, and the craft had a VW engine for takeoff. Once we were high enough, it got switched off and we glided, as high as 12000 feet. It was amazing! I suffer from vertigo on high buildings, but not in this small plane. The pilot let me fly some wide rounds and straight for half an hour. He disallowed a dive I wanted to perform though. He also wouldn't let me do the landing. I guess I was in an adrenalin rush! Mmuahahahahaaa!!! Edited March 8, 2016 by Olham Quote
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