AVIATION NOTES

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 125, 19 January 1932, Page 2

AVIATION NOTES

"Aileron")

(By

GLIDING When, in 19Q3, the Wright Bros. started .gliding in their box kites at Kitfy' Hawke; 'and Kill Devil Hill, Daytona, they were laying the foundation of a work, which on the production' of theif fi'rst aeroplane, startled the world. Although they were not influenced by the earliei j efforts :of the German Lilienthol, or • the English' exponent, Pilcher, they ! profited to -a great extent by a treatise written by Lilienthol in German, | and Wilbur Wright learned sufBcient | o'f the language to be able to take advantage of the G.erman's 'experience. While both .these exponents in the art of gliding used bird-like structures, the Bros. Wright, even at that early date; realising the importsinee of the reduction of head resistence lay flat on- the. lower wing, using ifnechanical means for the maintenance oi stability instead of the pen-' duluminate control by means of which the pilot had to swing his body to counteract ; the disturbing influences of gusts of wind. All the gliders, of which hundreds were made, were not construeted for soaring hights, all beiiig made to fly with a loss of altitude, but th'e knowledge' gained enabled the Wfights to produce an aeroplane which", launched by a' catapult, made sustained flights, the first in history.

Exhibition Flying. After doing a lot of exhibition fly- ' ing in Europe and America, Orville Wright again turned his attention to gliding, and in a similar design to their earlier gliders made, in 1912, a sustained gliding flight from the. top of Kitty Hawke Hill and remained stationary in the air for ten minutes. This achievement was received with incrediility 'by many at the time, and it was not till 1920 that any further interest was taken in motorless flight. .• I Gliding competitions held at Itford, in England, gave a real surprise. Many of the participants used builtup creations from war-time aeroplanes sometimes using a fuselage from one type of aeroplane equipped with a foreign pair of wings. Flights of nearly an hour were quite common, but the outstanding* f eature of the meeting was the seven-hour jaunt of Maneyrol on a Perret tandem monoplane.

From then on the sport developed, gaining more and more in popularity Until to-day every European country has numbers of gliding clubs supported by thousands of members. The machines have now developed to stieh an' extent that they bear but little resembihncd to the earlier types. The knowledge gained by the performances of some of these advanced soaring types is destined to prove of as great a value to-day as were the early efforts to the Wright Bros. at the beginning of the century. Hundred Mile Flights Some of the most efficient product'ons are capahle of making flights of a hundred miles or more in favourable weather and over suitable count: while in a flat cairn they are able to travel 28 feet horizontally with a ic"*. of only one foot in altitude. The ax-t in long-distance flying in motorless craft is dependent on a very wide knowledge of the use of ah* currents, and a perfect harmonising of the actions of the pilot and the ^esultant behaviour of the machine. To get advantage of every nn eu'rent the pi'ot must always the dirciion of the wind and the contour of the country over which he is flying, Perhaps it is cbfimult for some to understard how altitude is gained, but I th'nk the succeeding paragraph will mnke the action of an ascending giirler ouite. clear. We all know that heated air l'ises, and that when the wind is blowing up a slope the air must be rising. When ' under these influences a glider will gain height providing that the surrounding air is ascending at a greater speed than the normal speed of descent for this particular type of glider. Inefficient machines, of com-se, reauire a mucli higher velocity of ascending currents to retain their altitude than do their more efficient brethren. It can be plainly understood what a vast scopb is open to the. experienced pilot on the soaring type. He can malce use of air currents similar to an albatross, gaining height when the opportunity offers, and then making use of the height gained for horizontdl motiori. As all this can be achieved with no running expenses, one cannot fail to understand why the sport is gaining such popularitv, an'd again, when a SpoH relys 1 on the ability of the participant it has that personal touch which appeals more than the mechanical type, whare one is either dragged or driven I along.