Word: glider
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...19th century, when English Inventor George Cayley and later, German Engineer Otto Lilienthal began applying their knowledge of birds to efforts to get man off the ground. After World War I, the Versailles Treaty denied military aircraft to the vanquished and the Germans trained some 50,000 glider pilots. Americans began picking up the gliding habit in the late 1920s; in 1939 three brothers, Ernest, Paul and William Schweizer, set up the Schweizer Aircraft Corp. in Elmira, N.Y., which is still the principal American manufacturer...
Ridge currents-winds deflected upward by ridges or cliffs-are less challenging. They are "ridden" on the windward side of a ridge or cliff. Waves are formed when a steady wind blows over a mountain and forms vast smooth currents of undulating air that may lift a glider to an altitude ten times higher than the mountain. The altitude record was made in 1961 when Paul Bikle soared in a Schweizer 1-23E from 3,964 ft. to 46,267 ft. in a wave over the Mojave Desert...
...does not worry boosters of the sport; indeed, prizes are sometimes given for the most interesting crashes. Sales of more than 30 manufacturers are booming, partially because the craft are not regulated by the Federal Aviation Administration. Hang-gliding is also cheap. Depending on do-it-yourself inclinations, the glider can be in the air for as little as $50 or as much as $800. Says Bill Allen of Eipper-formance, a California manufacturer: "This sport is going where motorcycles and surfing have already been...
Like skiers, sailors and surfers, sailplane and hang-glider pilots have their own vocabulary. A few definitions to help neophytes find their way among the updrafts...
Trapeze-The control bar of a hang-glider...