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Aviation History
1942
1942 - 2051.PDF
OCTOBER IST, 1942 FLIGHT RIDING THE WIND 361 MH CONVERTING A TWO-SEATER AERONCA DEFENDER INTO A GLIDER : 1, the glider being towed on to the field ; 2, Maurice Fry, Aeronca test pilot, checks the controls ; 3, members of the Aeronca research institute give final approval ; 4, the training glider takes the air ; 5, landing after the first flight ; 6, the pilot reports to representatives of the Aeronca concern, the U.S. Army Air Forces, and the Civil Aeronautics Administration ; 7 and 8 show two aspects of the glider, and in 9 Major Lewin Barringer, of the U.S. Army Air Forces, prepares to take off. a two-seater plane WJB changed into a three-seater glider. Only nine days elapsed between the first telephone call pro posing the idea and the first tow of the completed glider. The first glider was finished by May 20th, and in the afternoon made several auto-tow flights 20 to 30 feet off the ground. Several aerial-tow flights were made the fol lowing afternoon, with Major Lewin B. Barringer, glider specialist of the Army Air Forces, at the controls on some flights. On the 22nd the glider wras towed to Washington, roughly 500 air miles, by a plane of the Civil Aeronautics Administration, with Major Barringer in the glider. Eigfifteen test tows were made by Army and C.A.A. offi cials at the National Airport during three succeeding days, and on May 26th the glider was towed back to the factory, where work had started already on making the necessary jigs for the glider parts. By request, spoilers to complete the design and structure of the glider were designed, built and installed in four days. After twenty-three more test nights the spoiler control was rebuilt for front-seat installa tion to correct a slight vibration induced by tha^spoilers, and-a swivel tail wheel was added. Type certificate tests for airworthiness were completed June 7th, after a total of 61 tows made and 41 hours in the air. Success of this conversion resulted in the placing of initial orders for 550 similar conversions, each with the Aeronca Company, the Piper Aircraft Corporation and the Taylor- craft Aviation Corporation. Conversion of the Piper Cub was made by the omission of the engine and engine mount and constructing a front cockpit in the nose. All three seats are provided with complete controls—stick, rudder controls, brake pedals and instruments. The single set of instruments normally provided in the light aircraft serve the two bi«fk seats. The present glider training programme is preliminary to a much larger one to prepare pilots for the use of great transport giiders, the construction of which is being con sidered and on which a start has been made. Scvci^il aircraft plants have for more than a year been building gliders with a wing span of 80ft. and more for the Army. The first of these was delivered last January to 1he Air Corps at Wright Field, Ohio, for testing. Some time ago the Navy contracted with three companies for fourteen trial gliders—ten two-seater trainers, two 12-seater troop carriers, and two 24-seatflr carriers, the four large craft to be built of plastic-impregnated and bonded plywood. Both of the 24-seater gliders were to. be seaplanes and equipped for towing in the air by Navy combat planes. They were designed to have a wing span of about 110ft. and for a gross weight of 12,000 lb The 12-seater gliders called for a span of 88ft. and gross weight of 6,500 ll».
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