Gliders

[Mossie]

It's something we don't mention much.  Gliders are probably one of aviation's least glamorous inventions.  Spots glider pilots are seen as an odd bunch, derided by pilots of real aircraft for taking up their airspace.  Hang Gliders are just for nutters & Ewoks.  Military gliders saw breif & mixed operations in WWII, seeing there fair share of both glory & disaster before being eclipsed to obscurity by powered types.

Military gliders tend to be boxy & functional beasts, due to their use as assault transports.  Sports gliders on the other hand are, IMHO, the most graceful of aircraft which captures back a small amount of the glamour lost to their powered cousins.  They're reasonably well represented in models too, most of the major military gliders are kitted & many experimental & vintage gliders are accounted for by resin & short run manufacturers.  Revell especially have three excellent 1/32 glider kits in the ASK 21, LS8a & their most recent Duo Discus (my recent purchase of which prompted this thread), which have suprised the modelling press by being very popular.

So fire away.  Obscure types, conversions of aircraft types to gliders, modern military gliders etc, etc. Also uses for the various kits, especially the Duo Discus, which might well get built real-world unless someone can twist my arm!
Simon.

[The Rat]

...derided by pilots of real aircraft for taking up their airspace.

I've had some glider time, and those 'real pilots' don't know what they're missing. They're probably just too scared to go up in something without an engine.

[deathjester]

The Space Shuttle.  It too is a glider. A 25 ton one....
 Why not use a Sanger style spaceplane as a troop transport-now that's what I call a high altitude para jump!
Just dive inside the atmosphere, throw troops out then pitch back up into LEO to complete the journey back to base.  The troopship would be virtually immune to AA fire, and the assault could be launched from home territory, rather than from a base nearby.

[deathjester]

...derided by pilots of real aircraft for taking up their airspace.

I've had some glider time, and those 'real pilots' don't know what they're missing. They're probably just too scared to go up in something without an engine.

Speaking as a one time trainee 'real pilot', I would have to say that you sir are suffering from a surplus of bravery!!  Well done though, must have been fun - how long a flight did you manage?

[jcf]

Least glamorous???
Maybe today, however they were hot-s**t in the 20s & 30s, particularly in Central Europe.

Record-setter Fafnir:
http://www.trade-a-glider.com/picturepro/nfpicturepro/thumbnails.php?album=59

http://www.scalesoaring.co.uk/VINTAGE/Documentation/Fafnir/FafnirStory.html

http://www.cwgsy.net/private/jennic/

More sailplane stuff:
http://www.scalesoaring.co.uk/VINTAGE/Documentation/Documentation.html

The Let Lunak and Blanik were done in 1/48th scale by a Czech company, both kits are actually quite nice and they show up
on the used market for reasonable prices.

Escape From New York probably has one of the best What-if? uses of a glider. 

The X-26B and Lockheed "Q-Star" are also pretty cool.

[Mossie]

I've mentioned before, but I plan to get a glider flight in sometime.  Wolds Gliding Club is about thirty miles from where I live & I pass it on the days I work in York.  In my last job I worked with a glider pilot & a grin wold fix on his face when he talked about it.  The comment about 'real' pilots was tongue in cheek, but the impression I've got from more than one powered fixed wing pilot is they can't understand why anyone would fly an aircraft without an engine or with rotary wings!  I work with two GA pilots, one had a go at gliding & throughly enjoyed, although it hadn't swayed her.  The other offered me a flight with him at cost when I mentioned I might take a trip in a glider!

Have I posted this & can you hijack your own thread?  This is Wolds Gliding Club's Phoenix, an old Shorts 330 fuselage that's used as a launch control room, it's mounted on a bogie & towed to whichever end of the runway they are using at the time.  The club is located at ex-RAF Pocklington, an old WWII bomber station, they use it for it's proximty to the hills of the Yorkshire Wolds to gain extra lift.



Lovely pics Jon. :ph34r  The wingspan of the Fafnir is very impressive for an aicraft of it's time & even now, especially considering it was using 30's materials.  Wonderful creation.

Escape from New York, don't know wether to groan or grin!  I guess special forces could use a standard glider to insert a two man recce team.

Hadn't thought about the Q-Star, I guess it's a powered glider.  I guess you could include the Rutan Voyager & Global Flyer as powered gliders too & pushing it a bit, high altitude recce aircraft like the U-2 & M-17/M-52, that use glider principals in their design & operation.

[philp]

I got a flight in one back when i was in college.  Wasn't near long enough but was exceedingly fun.
Would like to do another, and a hot air balloon, and a blimp, and a...

I have always loved the story from D-Day about the attack on what became Pegasus Bridge.  Just the skill to be able to get that close to your target, in the dark, with no power, fantastic.

Modern wise, a stealth glider for insertion of secret agents (yeah, I know, but much cooler than a parachute).  Maybe painted black and the wings fold against the body for storage in an old barn.

[Cobra]

Hey Guys, In 'Space:1999' they had a Re-Entry Glider,Can't Recall the Episode name off hand but........Think a Glider would Work as a 'Return Vehicle' for the International Space Station or as a 'Boost' to Launching Sats? Just Something that came to me as i was Reading this!!!!!!

[rickshaw]

I've met a couple of Horsa pilots over the years from the Glider Regt.  Most were very polite gentlemen who had some very hair-raising stories of flying their gliders into Occupied Europe.  The actor Jackie Coogan - best remembered as "Uncle Fester" from the TV series "Adams Family" was a glider pilot in Burma.  You had to be tough to do that!

[Mossie]

Here's some designs from Jerry Blumenthal, for one man prone piloted gliders.  There's some quite interesting designs, both Gliders & powered aircraft on this page:
http://www.twitt.org/BLUMENTHAL.htm

[dy031101]

I've got this idea wondering if it would have been possible to build special-purpose military gliders for, say, AEW (housing only radar and operating crew in this specific case).  Any transport or bombers relegated to secondary duties could tow them into the air, and the glider wouldn't have seperated from the tow craft until it was time to return to base......

Rough idea only, and it might sound like a complicated way to get an AEW radar airborne, I know......  

[MAD]

Looking at that Short 330 fuselage, has made me think!

The Short 330 (or more precisely the military derivative - the C-23 Sherpa) could (in my small mind only) make for a good emergency built 'Assault Glider'!
Now think about it -
- remove its two turboprops and engine nacelles
- remove all non essential gear and gadgits
- install a emergency wind turbine - so as to give electrical power for on-board instruments and lighting
- strengthen nose area to allow the fitting of a tow-point
- install a GPS system and antenna to give pin point accuracy in navigation and landing

Now all I need is for someone (hint hint......!!!!!!) with profiling talent to do me a 'GC-23A' with the above modifications incorporated.........say in a USAF Euro One camouflage pattern
Voroila.........my dream would be alive and U.S, British and Australian Special Forces would have the ability to assault distant targets .......say Iranian ballistic missile sites or nuclear development complexes in silents, in concentrated numbers and with some real packing firepower mounted on Fast Attack Vehicles (say Chenowth Fast Attack Vehicle!)
                         

[rickshaw]

Or maybe we're thinking too small ... 

Why not?  They converted C-47s into Gliders to fly supplies over "the hump" to China, so why not C-130s.  However, I think their use would be rather limited.  Much easier to fly in and then fly out, using a fully powered aircraft - which is of course why gliders were eventually abandoned. 

[elmayerle]

Or maybe we're thinking too small ... 

But what do you tow it with?  A spare JB-52?  A modified C-5 or C-17?  Or just recycle a bunch of older 747s oe DC-10/MD-11s from the Mojave boneyard?

[Mossie]

I've got this idea wondering if it would have been possible to build special-purpose military gliders for, say, AEW (housing only radar and operating crew in this specific case).  Any transport or bombers relegated to secondary duties could tow them into the air, and the glider wouldn't have seperated from the tow craft until it was time to return to base......

Rough idea only, and it might sound like a complicated way to get an AEW radar airborne, I know......  

I don't think it's that crazy.  You could have a towed glider module behind the tug aircraft.  You could have different modules depending on the mission, AEW, C³, ELINT/SIGINT etc.  You still have the problem of allocation of the tug aircraft.

Or maybe we're thinking too small ... 

Maybe the Soviet equivalent being An-22's with an An-124 or 225 tug....