Abstract
THE early history of gliding is the early history of flying in heavier-than-air machines of any kind. The machine was projected into the air either from a hill-top or from flat ground, and came down slowly while moving forward. Lilien-thal described in his book on “Bird Flight as the Basis for Aviation” how in some of his earlier experiments in gliding over slopes the machine actually soared, or gained in height, being carried upward by the air current flowing up the slope. But the early pioneers soon became absorbed in the problem of developing a power unit, and the development of the petrol engine, by making the aeroplane possible, diverted attention from the possibilities of pure gliding. In Germany gliding was taken up as a sport soon after the Great War, and in 1922 the achievement of Martens in soaring for an hour gave a new impetus to the movement. The Daily Mail organized a gliding meeting at Itford Hill in 1922 ; but this failed to produce any permanent interest in gliding in England. It was only at the end of 1929, after the Germans had shown that the glider need not be bound to a hill-slope, but could soar under and into clouds, and could ride the front of an advancing storm, that interest was at last aroused in Great Britain, and that there came into existence a real British gliding movement. After undergoing the usual pangs of adolescence, this movement is now approaching the adult stage.
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BRUNT, D. Gliding and Soaring Flight*. Nature 141, 712–716 (1938). https://doi.org/10.1038/141712a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/141712a0