Evening star., 1942-06-14
Gliders Open New Chapter in Aviation

Cessna Aircraft Corp. Of Wichita.
Kans. recently completed, in record
time, a new factory at Hutchinson.
Kans, in which they are to make moth.
ing but gliders, In what Cessna's presi-
dent describes as gigantic program.
Two other major" aircraft companies
will build gliders, the announcement
said
Aeronca Aircraft Corp. at Middletown,
Ohio, has converted one of its training
planes into a primary glider and this
type OF glider is already rolling of the
assembly line. Furniture manufacturers
have plans completed for wooden gliders
of almost any size and are ready to go.
Airplane pilots from 18 to IS years OF
age are being recruited by the Army to
attend gliding schools. in preparation
for whatever service the War Depart
ment has in mind.
The scores of Douglas planes which
we're recently whisking Americans along
the 81, 900 miles of airways in this coun-
try, and which are now presumed to be
CARRYING war supplies through the skies
above the Burma road, might just as
well be doubling or TRIPPING their freight
moving capacity. Southee believes The
Douglas transport. he points out, besides
carving almost its full load of 5000
pounds. can tow three or four gnders
behind it. each loaded with freight, and
at a speed of l25 miles an hour. That
is considerably below their average air.
line cruising speed of 100 miles an hour.
but 1t is roughly six to eight times as
fast as such freight can 60 on the
surface.
In the same manner Army freight
planes plying back and forth across the
country by the hundreds could be towing
gliders and increasing their effective
ness.
Freight for the Americas.
Take the case of transportation be-
tween North and South America"
Southee points out. Here we have
Lowell Yerex, president of TACA Air
lines in Central America. converting his
Central American operations into sort
of Western Hemisphere tramp service.
Recently one of his planes cleared
customs at Miami and landed in Winni-
peg Canada. where it picked up three
engines which he needed in Honduras.
These were flown to Trinidad. There
the plane found a cargo waiting to so
to GEORGETOWN British Guiana, and at
Georgetown it took on another load and
10 To- fhore
the pilot found load of quartz crystals
badly needed in the United States by
radio manufacturers, and it sped them
5000 miles back to Miami.
That, says Yerex, indicates what can
be done by one airplane. operating as
a tramp steamer does. That airplane
might just as we'll have had two or
three gliders In tow. and II 1t were
operating on a regular schedule, prob
ably would have.
The glider picture of the future
is enhancing to those Of us who have
been in it for years. It's like hangar
flying dreams come true" Southee con-
tinues Nobody is comfortably fore
casting or prophesying in aviation, but
the handwriting is pretty plain with
gliders, at least for the beginning OF
the glider age
'Freight-carrying gliders are inevi-
table. A plane. just like surface vessel,
can tow much more than it can lift.
The pull Of glider is not great. The
three-place glider made by the Aeronca
Aircraft Co., which was originally sug-
gested and designed by Charles l. Stan
ton, acting administrator of the CAA.
pulls little more than 100 pounds on
the plane. The tow-rope Is about as
big as a mans little finger. Thus, the
speed Of an air freighter will be cut
down. but its performance otherwise
will not be seriously affected by a glider
tow. Any speed which is at least two
or three times as fast as the best
ground speed is economical in air trans
portation.
I'VE have already proved-as have
the Germans. Of course-that a train
Of gliders is feasible. AS far back as
1888. Jack OMeara, Stanley Smith and
R. E. Franklin, all flying Franklin util-
ity gliders, and all carrying mail. towed
by q biplane with a 225-hp. motor,
started from New York and dropped of
ono glider each at Philadelphia, Balti-
more and at Washington. The Wash
ington glider landed on the Ellipee in
front OF the White House.
Gliding is the means Of training
for soaring as sport. Soaring, to
many, is the absolute ultimate in sport
Any one who has attended the glider
meets at Elmira can clearly see the
fanaticism that grips us in the glider
field. Nothing 50 closely approaches
human flying as this engrossing sport.
Since our country is spotted with hum
dreds of ideal soaring sites. there ara
certain to be millions who will take
1t up. Gliding IL work, necessary train-f
ing for the greatest Of al sports
soaring!"