Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1922-08-26
WE HAD CLlDERS HERE
People Seem to Think Motorless Air.
plane 10 New Thing, but Phlladei.
phla Had II Twelve Years AGO
DECENT news reels in the motion pic.

DECENT news reels in the motion. pic
~ ture houses have given Philadelphians
virtually front row seats at the contest held
in France for gliders, or airplanes without
motors. and still later news from Germany,
including the new record OF more than three
hours In the air made by student, has
conferred good deal of isterest on this phase
of aviation.
The most astonishing thing about It to the
man who has followed the development OF
airplanes from the beginning is the wide-
spread impression among the public that
this Is something entirely new in mans
efforts to conquer the air. This impression
motion picture house and heard the com
ments of the people about him as the glders
were shown in flight.
As matter of fact, there is nothing
whatever new in gliders except that the rec
ord of duration of flight has steadily in
creased just rs other records in science or
sport Hrc constantly being bettercd. But
pictures Of the planes which took part in the
French contest, coming from nll over the
world. show that there Is nothing inherently
novel in the construction of these machines,
and that they are to all intents and purposes
the same as the machines that were flown
right here in Philadelphia twelve or thirteen
years ago.
THE Wright brothers acquired oil Of the
data upon which they built their sue
cessful machines. from their experiments
with motorless planes. American gliding
goes back still further thnn that to the
days of Prof. Langleys misnamed and un-
fortunate 'aerodrome."
The Wright brothers were the first to
achieve real success with gliders, rs other
eNperimenters had met, with disaster. and
several of them with death. from inability
to control their machines in the air.
The Wright glider was essentially the
same as their original biplane 20 far as its
wings and struts were concerned. but Of
course, ii had no motor. In those days
there were no gasoline motors light enough
to be carried on plane and with sufficient
power TO operate the propcllers that give
the machines the speed required in flying.
This lack of the gasoline motor, as u
matter Of fact was the thing that held
back aviation so long, because the main
principles of the airplane are quite clearly,
set out in pa.ent to an Englshman named
Hansen in 1913 or 1914.
THE Wright glider was started from the
L top of hill. slid down n rail and. when
it acquired sufficient speed 1t could be made
to rise into the air. Later they rigged
up tower with heavy weight and the
dropping of the weight pulled n rope which
gave them their start along the rail.
The operator lay flat. face downward. on
the lower plane with his hips incloscd in
n wooden framework that slid from one
side to the other and operated the flexible
wing tips by which he maintained his
balance, and his hands in front Of him
worked the levers which stcered him to
right or left or UP or down.
CurtiSS at the same time was working
with glider and it became quite the thing
for young enthusiasts in the new science
to build gliders for themselves and try the
hazardous stunt of being towcd behind auto
mobiles or tying their machines to long
rope and rising head on into Il strong
wind.
This was the first activity of the Aero
Club Of pennSylvanta when, after merging
Xh soro the H"%0n 10 %rgan1z%on k"9wn nj the
headquarters in the old Betz Building. The
Rev. G.. :. Gassncr, by the way. who died
Yesterday. was secretary of the Aero Club
and always was present at glider meets
The younger members of this club, almost
fanatic in their belief in the future of the
airplane. md reckless Of life and limb
established themselves at the old Point
Breeze race track and there they quite regu.
larly smashed up a glider and almost
smashed its operator every Saturday after
noon.
Students at the University of Pennsyl-
vania also formed an Aero Club and built
several gl!dcrs, which they tried out on the
field in front of the Commercial Museum.
Tn THESE early gliLers. built by ANA
i tours there were no flexible wing tips and
no steering devices. There was nm opening
IN the middle of the lower plane. with two
1Ore ana ait "OOuen 'DuTS. anu iut operator
hung from this opening with his arms over
the bars. 1t was then an acrobatic per-
formance to swing his swaying legs from
right to left when the plane began to tilt
and to pull himself forward and to slide
himself back on these bars when he wanted
10 60 down or up.
There Is Philadelph!an Of today, Law
ronch I.esch, who recently hecame prominent
through his experiments with light rays, by
which he can make an object invisible even
as you look at il. who was then a student
at Columbia University, and he held the
record for duration of time in the air In
glider. Memory does not furnish accurate
fgurps but this record was something like
fifteen minutes. Mr.. LesCh was very badly
injured in fall with his glider, and fo-
many years after he came to Philadelphia
bore the marks of his mishap.
II Is difficult to see just what the glider
enthusiasts of today hope to accomplish in
these tests. So long as nirplanes depend
for their flying ability upon the pressure
of air under an inclined wing, just so long
will 1t be necessary TO furnish some means
Of acquiring this pressure. Giders today,
just as fifteen or twenty years ago, must
20 down hill or be towed or must head into
n wind which will give the pressure
Quired.
1t is, OF course, a great tribute to the
skill and cleverness of an operator 10 keep
one Of these machines in flight for more
than three hours as this German student
has Just done, but after all, it does not
advance the science Of aviation, nor is it
something new, rs the general public of
today seem TO think.