The Coolidge examiner. [volume] (Coolidge, Ariz.) 1930-current, 1933-11-17

Washington. ID. C.-WNU Service.
TINE recent breaking of the
American gliding record by
Richard C. du Pont in the
mountains of Virginia. draws new
interest to flying with motorless
planes. Soaring over the Blue
Ridges for 1922 miles, Du Poni
nearly doubled the former Ameri.
can record and came within ii miles
Of breaking the worlds record.
Although air-minded persons in
America and Europe have taken up
gliding. the hobby appears to have
taken greatest hold in Germany.
In Germany today hundreds of
schoolboys are flying. Three thou
sand took official instructions in a
recent year. Elevators. control
sticks. Side-slips, take-offs. landings,
and views down below" are dis
cuSSed now as freely and intimately
as tennis or automobiles.
In the plane OF the German boy
there is no engine, il is true; yet he
actually flies. And. from the very
nature of his birdlike machine. he
really learns more OF air conditions
than many a pilot of standard air
craft has yet learned; for, on the
very first day. after intensive lee
turing. he climbs into the seat OF
the glider, takes hold of the con-
trolls. aud slips off into space.
In concentration. in quick thought
and action. lies the boys salvation.
for no instructor flies with him.
Any schoolboy of fourteen years
or over may enroll. instruction is
free and given by school teachers
themselves. This plan treasures
parents, though primary gliding is
not particularly dangerous, as the
machines seldom fly higher than 10
or II feet. Later. with more expe-
rience, flyers may glide for 80 or 40
miles. attain an elevation of several
hundred feet. and remain aloft for
hours.
Nor is this new air art by any
means confined to practice G,nong
boys. At the technical universities
students have formed clubs for the
study. design. and construction of
their own motorless airplanes. Most
Of the highly sensitive, so-caned
sail planes" have been developed
nj the universities.
What the Glider Can Do.
Mans dream of flying on out
stretched wings is as old as man
himself. and for twenty years his
planes and diriglbles. propelled by
gas engines, have carried him over
the earth.
But now, in this new glider de-
vice, with no artificial power at all,
he may also cross mountains and
valleys, cruise down rivers and far
out TO sea, hang on to a cloud and
ride for hours. or even remain al
most motionless in air. like a hawk
ready to swoop.
To understand fully the rise and
amazing growth OF Germany's Gid
ing machines. one must look back
back. to the pioneer makers OF air
planes. The Wright brothers, for
example, and Lilienthal made their
FIRST aerial dashes In gliders.
So successful have motor-driven
aircraft become. however, that the
worlds attention has been largely
diverted from air travel by simple
gliders. For nearly two decades only
few enthusiasts kept the art
alive; but today, due to amazing in
crease in air commerce, man is
more interested than ever in the air
as an element-in that soft, light
flexible medium through which his
flying ships must sail. So now the
vast overhead aerial ocean, its
whims and its peculiarities, afford
new and fascinating subject of
study.
Use Currents as Do Birds.
Already, from more recent adven-
lures in gliding machines, it APP
pears that man is coming to share
what birds have always known
about the air. He finds 1t will sup
port him. as water carries a swim
mer. If he will but handle his
glider wings as soaring birds handle
theirs. Even wind gusts, squalls,
and clouds. which pioneer expert
mentors with giiders used to dread,
are now recognized as useful aids
- motOrless flying craft.
How birds use air currents and
what flyers learned from them is re-