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Aviation History
1942
1942 - 2048.PDF
V 360 v*^-»' FLIG HA RIDING A- WIND OCTOBER IST, 1942 Converting Amerigdn Light PLanes lnto\ Gliders / By HARRY WILKIN PERRY THE practical utility of sitoall gliders for pilot train ing, and huge gliders foi\paratroop transport, was ignored by United States%military authorities up to two years ago, but events in EITJSJ^, particularly the use of transport gliders by the Nazis forxlw-"' Crete and their use on both sides along the Russian front, considerably changed this attitude of mind. As a result of agitation by a number of members of Congress, a small group of Army Air Corps officers were sent to Elmira, N.Y., in 1940, to take a course of training in glider piloting, and these ^rien were appointed official observers at the 12th annual meeting of the Soaring Society of America held there the last week in June of that year. Since then the Army has established a soar ing school in the Midwest, where pilots are learning the science of glider flying, and there is also a school on •the Pacific Coast. Officers and men of the Marine Corps also have been undergoing training in glider operation at Marine Barracks in South Carolina for more than a year. An interesting innovation adopted at the Army school for preliminary glider training, is the use of unique " wiijd-^* wagons," which create an air current that sustains a glider only a few feet above the ground over a given spot while the pilot safely learns to operate the controls, the glider being held within certain limits of movement by cables at the front. The machines make unnecessary the usual practice of launching gliders by towline and releasing them high above the ground. They were in vented by the president of the Zenith Radio Corporation and perfected and built by the Winchester Corporation, manufacturer of wind-driven electric generating plants. Stationary Lift Each wind machine is mounted on a conventional auto mobile chassis and can travel at 50 m.p.h. When the vehicle is stationary, the engine can be connected to a hori zontal shaft on which a large-diameter airscrew is mounted within a big sheet-steel cylinder open at both ends. The machine is capable of creating a horizontal wind that is controllable at velocities up to a maximum of 50 m.p.h. The man most responsible for glider training on a large scale is probably Charles Stanton, administrator of the Civil Aeronautics Administration, which has charge of the Civilian Pilot Training Programme as well as the con- Close-up of " wind wagons," showing belt drive from the propeller shaft of the chassis to the airscrew shaft. The cellular structure serves to straighten the slipstream. struction and maintenance of airportsand airways and the supervision of airline operation. This year's Congressional appropriations for these purposes amount to ^77,500,000, of which ^18,000,000 is for civilian pilot training. When it became evident that glider training should be included in the course, and something had to be done in a hurry to provide enough gliders for the purpose, which the three small-scale glider builders in the country could not supply, Mr. Stanton directed engineers of the C.A.A. to investigate the practicability of converting small private aircraft into motorless gliders. The first conversion was made at the plant of the Aeronca Aircraft Corporation, of Middletown, Ohio, where A Piper Cub light plane modified for installation of a front seat. The undercarriage has been replaced a swivelling tail wheel fitted. iw landing wheels, and
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