Gliding Technology
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Gliding Technology
Gliding is a recreational activity and competitive air sport in which pilots fly unpowered aircraft known as gliders or sailplanes using naturally occurring currents of rising air in the atmosphere to remain airborne. The word ''soaring'' is also used for the sport. Gliding as a sport began in the 1920s. Initially the objective was to increase the duration of flights but soon pilots attempted cross-country flights away from the place of launch. Improvements in aerodynamics and in the understanding of weather phenomena have allowed greater distances at higher average speeds. Long distances are now flown using any of the main sources of rising air: ridge lift, thermals and lee waves. When conditions are favourable, experienced pilots can now fly hundreds of kilometres before returning to their home airfields; occasionally flights of more than are achieved. Some competitive pilots fly in races around pre-defined courses. These gliding competitions test pilots' abilities to ma ...
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Schempp-Hirth Ventus-2
The Schempp-Hirth Ventus-2 is a sailplane produced by Schempp-Hirth since 1994. It replaced the highly successful Schempp-Hirth Ventus. Design and development The Ventus-2a and 2b are 15 metre sailplanes. The 'a' version has a narrow fuselage and the wider fuselage version is called the 2b. Wingtip device, Winglets are used with these models. The 18 metre span Ventus-2c was introduced in 1995 and was almost an entirely different aircraft with a different fuselage and wings, but it has the option of shorter tips with winglets to fly as a 15-metre sailplane. From 2003 the Schempp-Hirth Discus-2 fuselage was used for all versions, which now have the designations 2ax, 2bx and 2cx. Flight tests in 1996 showed that the 15 metre version had a glide angle of 46:1 but only after considerable work on sealing gaps and by using turbulators. The narrow fuselage Ventus-2a has been highly successful in gliding, competitions with consecutive World Gliding Championships, World Championship ...
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Wright Brothers
The Wright brothers, Orville Wright (August 19, 1871 – January 30, 1948) and Wilbur Wright (April 16, 1867 – May 30, 1912), were American aviation List of aviation pioneers, pioneers generally credited with inventing, building, and flying the world's first successful airplane. They made the first controlled, sustained flight of an engine-powered, Aircraft#Heavier-than-air – aerodynes, heavier-than-air aircraft with the ''Wright Flyer'' on December 17, 1903, four miles (6 km) south of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, at what is now known as Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina, Kill Devil Hills. In 1904 the Wright brothers developed the ''Wright Flyer II'', which made longer-duration flights including the first circle, followed in 1905 by the first truly practical fixed-wing aircraft, the ''Wright Flyer III''. The brothers' breakthrough invention was their creation of a Flight dynamics (aircraft), three-axis control system, which enabled the pilot to steer the aircraft effec ...
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1940 Summer Olympics
The 1940 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XII Olympiad, was a planned international multi-sport event scheduled to have been held from 21 September to 6 October 1940, in Tokyo City, Japan, and later rescheduled for 20 July to 4 August 1940, in Helsinki, Finland following the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937. They were ultimately cancelled because of World War II alongside the 1940 Winter Olympics in Sapporo, Japan, and were the third games to be cancelled due to war. Helsinki would eventually host the 1952 Summer Olympics. Tokyo would also later host the 1964 Summer Olympics, 1964 and 2020 Summer Olympics, the latter being postponed to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 1940 Tokyo Olympics (canceled) The campaign to choose a city for 1940 began in 1932, with Barcelona, Rome, Helsinki, and Tokyo participating. Tokyo city officials suggested a campaign as a means of international diplomacy following Japan's alienation from the League of Nations ...
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Demonstration Sport
A demonstration sport, or exhibition sport, is a sport which is played to promote it, rather than as part of standard medal competition. This occurs commonly during the Olympic Games but may also occur at other sporting events. Demonstration sports were officially introduced in the 1924 Summer Olympics, though some scholars consider unofficial sports prior to 1924 to also be demonstrations. Most organizing committees then decided to include at least one demonstration sport at each edition of the Games, usually some typical or popular sport in the host country, like baseball at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games and taekwondo at the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games. From 1924 to 1992, only two Summer Olympics Games did not have demonstration sports on their program. Some demonstration sports eventually gained enough popularity to become an official sport in a subsequent edition of the Games. Traditionally, the medals awarded for the demonstration events followed the same design as the Ol ...
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Gliding At The 1936 Summer Olympics
Gliding at the 1936 Summer Olympics was a demonstration sport. The sport of gliding had been developed in Germany in the 1920s but had spread widely by 1936, allowing an international demonstration to the International Olympic Committee (IOC). No contest took place and no prizes were allowed by the IOC. ISTUS (Internationale Studienkommission für motorlosen Flug) which later became part of the FAI Gliding Commission had wanted to present prizes, but this did not happen. However, a Swiss, Hermann Schreiber, was awarded a gold medal for his flight across the Alps in 1935. The demonstration at the 1936 Berlin Olympics was at Berlin-Staaken airfield on 4 August. Twenty-one pilots from seven countries (Bulgaria, Italy, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Switzerland, Germany and Austria) took part, including Germany's Hanna Reitsch. On the previous day, a wing of a glider broke during an aerobatic flight by an Austrian, Ignaz Stiefsohn. He was killed. The Hungarian pilot, Lajos Rotter, declar ...
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Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland became part of Nazi Germany, while the country lost further territories to First Vienna Award, Hungary and Trans-Olza, Poland (the territories of southern Slovakia with a predominantly Hungarian population to Hungary and Zaolzie with a predominantly Polish population to Poland). Between 1939 and 1945, the state ceased to exist, as Slovak state, Slovakia proclaimed its independence and Carpathian Ruthenia became part of Kingdom of Hungary (1920–1946), Hungary, while the German Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia was proclaimed in the remainder of the Czech Lands. In 1939, after the outbreak of World War II, former Czechoslovak President Edvard Beneš formed Czechoslovak government-in-exile, a government-in-exile and sought recognition from the ...
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Kadaň
Kadaň (; ) is a town in Chomutov District in the Ústí nad Labem Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 18,000 inhabitants. It lies on the banks of the Ohře river. Kadaň is a tourist centre with highlights being the Franciscan Monastery in Kadaň, Franciscan Monastery and the historical square with late Gothic Town Hall Tower. The historic town centre is well preserved and is protected as an Cultural monument (Czech Republic)#Monument reservations, urban monument reservation. Administrative division Kadaň consists of ten municipal parts (in brackets population according to the 2021 census): *Kadaň (16,478) *Brodce (20) *Kadaňská Jeseň (114) *Meziříčí (7) *Nová Víska (6) *Pokutice (39) *Prunéřov (252) *Tušimice (351) *Úhošťany (113) *Zásada u Kadaně (6) Etymology The name is most likely derived from the personal name Kadan, meaning "Kadan's (court)". Geography Kadaň is located about southwest of Chomutov and northeast of Karlovy Vary. It lies on the ...
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Munich
Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is not a state of its own. It ranks as the 11th-largest city in the European Union. The metropolitan area has around 3 million inhabitants, and the broader Munich Metropolitan Region is home to about 6.2 million people. It is the List of EU metropolitan regions by GDP#2021 ranking of top four German metropolitan regions, third largest metropolitan region by GDP in the European Union. Munich is located on the river Isar north of the Alps. It is the seat of the Upper Bavaria, Upper Bavarian administrative region. With 4,500 people per km2, Munich is Germany's most densely populated municipality. It is also the second-largest city in the Bavarian language, Bavarian dialect area after Vienna. The first record of Munich dates to 1158. The city ha ...
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Oskar Ursinus
Carl Oskar Ursinus (11 March 1877 – 6 July 1952) was a pioneer of German aviation and is remembered mainly for his contributions to sailplane designs and the sport of gliding. He has been nicknamed the ''Rhönvater'' ("Rhön father") because he founded Germany’s first gliding club at the Wasserkuppe in the Rhön Mountains in 1920.Reitsch, H., 1955, The Sky My Kingdom, London: Biddles Limited, Guildford and King's Lynn, Ursinus was born in Weißenfels and attended Technical College in Mittweida. After graduation, he worked for Borsig on compressors for locomotives, and spent some time working on mining machinery in Romania for the firm. In 1908, back in Germany, Ursinus began to publish a magazine titled ''Flugsport'' ''Flugsport : Illustrierte technische Zeitschrift und Anzeiger'', which was published bi-weekly from December 1908, then monthly from 1940 up to v. 36, no. 9 (September 1944). (“Sports Flying”), since he had become fascinated by the new technology of fligh ...
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John Murray (publishing House)
John Murray is a Scottish publisher, known for the authors it has published in its long history including Jane Austen, Arthur Conan Doyle, Lord Byron, Charles Lyell, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Herman Melville, Edward Whymper, Thomas Robert Malthus, David Ricardo, and Charles Darwin. Since 2004, it has been owned by conglomerate Lagardère Group, Lagardère under the Hachette Livre, Hachette UK brand. History The business was founded in London, England, in 1768 by John Murray (1737–1793), an Edinburgh-born Royal Marines officer, who built up a list of authors including Isaac D'Israeli and published the ''English Review (18th century), English Review''. John Murray the elder was one of the founding sponsors of the London evening newspaper ''The Star (1788), The Star'' in 1788. He was succeeded by his son John Murray II, who made the publishing house important and influential. He was a friend of many leading writers of the day and launched the ''Quarterly Review'' in 180 ...
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Wasserkuppe
The Wasserkuppe (;) is the highest mountain in the Rhön Mountains, Rhön range and the tallest elevation in the Germany, German state of Hesse, standing at above sea level. It forms a prominent plateau within the Fulda district and is known as the "cradle of gliding". Great advances in sailplane development took place here during the Aviation between the World Wars, interwar period, driven by annual contests. To this day, an airfield near the summit continues to be used by gliding clubs and light aircraft pilots. Etymology The German language, German name is derived from ''Wasenkuppe, Asenberg'' or ''Weideberg'' and means ''Pasture mountain''. Geography The Wasserkuppe lies in the administrative district Fulda (district), Fulda north of Gersfeld. Other villages nearby are Poppenhausen, Hesse, Poppenhausen ( west - south west) and Wüstensachsen ( east, part of Ehrenberg, Hesse). It is part of the Rhön Biosphere Reserve. The Wasserkuppe sources the spring of the river Ful ...
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