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Aviation History
1931
1931 - 0093.PDF
FLIGHT, JANUARY 30, 1931 GLIDING AUTO-GLIDING : Mr. Lowe Wylde making a towed flight in his Glider at Hanworth. AN INSTRUCTIONAL DEVELOPMENT LAST week we queried the value of the Zogling type ofglider even for primary instruction, and after thedemonstration at Hanworth on Sunday last, Janu- ary 25, we are rather inclined to think even more stronglythat the Zogling fulfils no real place at all. The occasion was one of a demonstration of towed flight by Mr. Lowe-Wylde, in conjunction with the authorities at Hanworth. The machines used were a somewhatmore efficient development of the Priifling type of glider, and fitted witha small undercarriage and a pair of diminutive Goodyear Air Wheels. Theglider was attached by a light cable to a car by means of a quick release,which the pilot could operate easily. The cable is on a brake-controlleddrum, operated by a man who sits facing the glider. The driver then goessteadily ahead, and by means of his speed can regulate whether the glideris air borne and can climb, or whether it just trundles along the ground atsuch a speed that the pilot can use the controls without actually leavingthe ground. It can readily be seen, therefore, that flights can be made inevery stage from merely being towed along the ground to being kited up toseveral hundred feet before the pilot operates his release, drops the cableand circles round to land. He may then, to look a long way ahead at somefuture date in a very efficient machine, reach the underside of cumulus clouds,and make use of the up-current under the cloud to continue further soaring.Tt seems to us that the importance of gliding as such has been over-rated,and far too many clubs have merely looked upon it as the be-all and end-allof their existence. In our opinion, there are only two ways of flying: oneis soaring flight and the other power- driven flight. Upto the present, train-ing for soaring flight has been carried out by being perched on the front of a form of aerial toboggan, and then catapulted down a slopeby means of an elastic cord so that the pilot just continues to glide until he reaches the bottom of the hill, after which,much sweat and pullee-haulee is required to get the machine to the top again ready for the next man, with the consequencethat only a limited number of people can get flights of a few seconds' duration every day. Even after they cancontrol this form of glider safely, they have a lot to learn before they are likely to be safe in a more efficienttype, which will actually soar. The training for power- driven flight has been carried out in an actual power-driven machine, whereby the budding pilot is gradually "THE END OF A PERFECT TOW": The Lowe Wylde " Auto- Glider " about to land after being towed by the car seen in the foreground. 95 '"•-"-
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