George B. Moffat Jr. (1927 – June 20, 2024) was an American author, twice world champion glider pilot, and a member of the U.S.

Soaring Hall of Fame The Soaring Hall of Fame recognizes individuals who have made the highest achievements in, or contributions to, the sport of gliding, soaring in the United States of America. It has been located at the National Soaring Museum in Elmira, New York, s ...

. He began flying airplanes in 1953, gliders in 1959, entered his first national

soaring competition Some of the pilots in the sport of gliding take part in gliding competitions. These are usually racing competitions, but there are also aerobatic contests and on-line league tables. History of competitions In the early days, the main goal wa ...

in 1962, and was still an active competition pilot as of 2008. Before competing in sailplanes, he compiled a winning record in

International 14 The International 14 is a British racing sailboat, crewed by two sailors. The class was established in 1928. The boat is a developmental sailing class and so the design rules and the boats themselves have changed dramatically over time to keep ...

foot

Dinghy racing Dinghy racing is a competitive sport using dinghies, which are small boats which may be rowboats, have an outboard motor, or be sailing dinghies. Dinghy racing has affected aspects of the modern sailing dinghy, including hull design, sail mater ...

. Moffat was the first pilot ever to win the Open Class title twice in the

World Gliding Championships The World Gliding Championships (WGC) is a gliding competitions, gliding competition held roughly every two years by the FAI Gliding Commission. The dates are not always exactly two years apart, often because the contests are always held in the sum ...

, has won five U.S. National championships, and was one of only two pilots to have won the U.S. national title in all three

glider competition classes Competition classes in gliding, as in other sports, mainly exist to ensure fairness in competition. However the classes have not been targeted at fostering technological development as in other sports. Instead classes have arisen because of: * t ...

(Open, Standard and 15-meter). A holder of the Lilienthal Medal, the highest award in gliding, he has flown competitively in over eight countries.

Biography

George Moffat was one of America's foremost competition pilots and has been soaring since 1958. Aside from winning several Nationals dating from 1969, and setting three triangle speed records, he won the world title in 1970 and 1974. After only a few days to become acquainted with the prototype

Schempp-Hirth Nimbus The Schempp-Hirth HS-3 Nimbus was a prototype glider built by Klaus Holighaus. The HS-3 Nimbus was a high performance single-seater. Holighaus designed and built this prototype glider in his spare time with assistance from Schempp-Hirth. Strict ...

he flew it in the 1970

at Marfa, Texas. He had to modify the aircraft's cockpit to fit in, and became the first person to sample its spin characteristics when, in mid-competition, the glider departed from a steep turn into autorotation. While considering bailing out, he remembered that the spin of the similar Akaflieg Darmstadt D36 could be tamed by rocking the stick back and forth violently. Flexing the wings caused the angle of attack to change and recovery eventually ensued. In spite of these difficulties, Moffat and the Nimbus won the World Championship. In 1974, he wrote "Winning on the Wind". He placed first in the 1975 Smirnoff Transcontinental Sailplane Race, and won the Coupe d'Europe European Sailplane Championship in 1977 at Angers, France. He was an enthusiastic sailor, winning the Eastern High Point Trophy three times, and the Douglass Trophy for match racing against Canada. He has written about 85 articles on soaring and sailing in publications such as ''Yachting'', ''Soaring'', ''Sailplane & Gliding'', and ''Popular Science''. He held an MA from Penn, taught at Rutgers Preparatory School (Somerset, New Jersey), Rutgers University (New Brunswick, New Jersey), and was head of the English Dept. at Pingry School (currently two New Jersey campuses). Moffat's victory in the 1969 US National Soaring Championship is chronicled in the 1971 film '' The Sun Ship Game'' by

cinéma vérité Cinéma vérité (, , ) is a style of documentary filmmaking developed by Edgar Morin and Jean Rouch, inspired by Dziga Vertov's theory about '' Kino-Pravda''. It combines improvisation with use of the camera to unveil truth or highlight subje ...

filmmaker

Robert Drew Robert Lincoln Drew (February 15, 1924 – July 30, 2014) was an American documentary filmmaker known as one of the pioneers—and sometimes called father—of cinéma vérité, or direct cinema, in the United States. Two of his films, ''Primar ...

and his 1974 victory at the

at Waikerie in South Australia was captured in the film of the championships ''Zulu Romeo – Good Start''. George Moffat lived in

Marion, Massachusetts Marion is a town in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, Plymouth County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 5,347 at the 2020 census. For geographic and demographic information on the village of Marion Center, please see the article Mar ...

, and died there at the age of 97 on June 20, 2024.

World glider records

*Single-place glider **Speed over a triangular course of 100 km: 128.38 km/h, August 16, 1962,

El Mirage Dry Lake El Mirage Lake is a dry lake bed in the northwestern Victor Valley of the central Mojave Desert, within San Bernardino County, California. The lake is located about west-northwest of the town of Adelanto and north of Highway 18 in San Bernar ...

Schreder HP-8 The Schreder Airmate HP-8 is an American, high-wing single seat glider that was designed by Richard Schreder after the loss of the HP-7 in 1957. Airmate was the name of Schreder's design company. Design and development The HP-8 was designe ...

**Speed over a triangular course of 300 km: 108.12 km/h, August 19, 1962,

**Speed over a triangular course of 300 km: 119.87 km/h, August 6, 1964,

Odessa, Texas Odessa () is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the county seat of Ector County, Texas, Ector County with portions extending into Midland County, Texas, Midland County. Odessa's population was 114,428 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 ...

::''Source:

Fédération Aéronautique Internationale The World Air Sports Federation (; FAI) is the world governing body for air sports, and also stewards definitions regarding human spaceflight. It was founded on 14 October 1905, and is headquartered in Lausanne, Switzerland. It maintains worl ...

Championships

World championships

* 1970

Marfa, Texas Marfa is a city in the high desert of the Trans-Pecos in far West Texas, United States, between the Davis Mountains and Big Bend National Park, at an elevation of 4685 feet. It is the county seat of Presidio County, Texas, Presidio County. The ci ...

, Open Class,

* 1974

Waikerie, South Australia Waikerie ( ) is a rural town in the Riverland region of South Australia on the south bank of the Murray River. At the , Waikerie had a population of 2,684. The Sturt Highway passes to the south of the town at the top of the cliffs. There is a c ...

, Open Class,

Schempp-Hirth Nimbus-2 The Schempp-Hirth Nimbus-2 is an Open Class glider built by Schempp-Hirth during the 1970s. The Nimbus-2 first flew in April 1971 and a total of over 240 examples of all subtypes have been built until the beginning of the 1980s. It replaced th ...

International championships

* 1975 Smirnoff Transcontinental Derby,

Eiri-Avion PIK-20 The PIK-20 sailplane was designed at the Helsinki University of Technology by Pekka Tammi, with advice from Ilkka Rantasalo and Raimo Nurminen. The prototype first flew on 10 October 1973. It was produced initially by Molino Oy who were taken ove ...

* 1977 European Championships, 15 meter class,

Schempp-Hirth Mini-Nimbus The Schempp-Hirth Mini Nimbus is a 15 Metre-class glider designed and built by Schempp-Hirth GmbH in the late 1970s. Design and development In designing the Mini-Nimbus, Klaus Holighaus incorporated the flapped wings from the Glasflügel 3 ...

Other flying accomplishments

Lilienthal Gliding Medal Lilienthal Gliding Medal – the highest soaring award in the world, established by Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) in 1938, and is given at the annual Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) General Conference. It was cr ...

, 1977 * FAI Challenge Cup 1970, 1974 * Exceptional Service Award 1999 * Exceptional Achievement Award 1966, 1970, 1973 * Barnaby Lecture 2001 * du Pont Trophy 1969, 1973, 1982 * Stroukoff Trophy 1966, 1982 * Standard Class Trophy 1970 * Schreder 15-Meter Trophy 1978 * FAI Diamond #44 (Int #449) 1965 :''Source:

Books authored

* 1975, ''Winning on the Wind'', The Soaring Press, Los Altos, California. Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 74-82783 * 2005, ''Winning II: new perspectives'', Julian, Pennsylvania: Knauff & Grove.

References

External links

Biography in the magazine of the Soaring Association of Canada ''Free Flight'' June/July 2002
'Red Baron In The Wild Blue Yonder'
Taken from the ''

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with a circulation of over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellen ...

'' archive website. {{DEFAULTSORT:Moffat, George B. Jr 1927 births 2024 deaths American aviators American aviation record holders American aviation writers American glider pilots Glider flight record holders Lilienthal Gliding Medal recipients People from Marion, Massachusetts