282 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 19 3 



THE PROSPECTS FOE SOARING FLIGHT 



The performances recorded above show that flying without engine 

 power, by using the energy of rising currents in the atmosphere, 

 is already established. We can not, indeed, expect it to meet the 

 requirements of air transport, but its value as a sport can not be 

 questioned, and as such is on a high level in its demand for phj'sical 

 fitness, skill, quick decision, and courage, and in addition a serious 

 study of the scientific and technical problems involved. 



Especially, soaring flight has had a beneficial effect on the design 

 of light airplanes which now give performances with low engine 

 power which were only possible formerly with powerful engines. 



The soaring glider with an auxiliary engine is unsatisfactory 

 both as a glider and as a power airplane, and this line of develop- 

 ment has been given up in Germany except for special research 

 work. 



The research institute of the society has recently established a 

 new and important system of aerodynamical tests of new aircraft 

 types. In the first place free flights by large models of three to 

 four meters span are carried out at small cost. When all that can 

 be learned from the models has been recorded^ gliders of similar 

 aerodynamical form are built and tested by a pilot in different 

 flying attitudes. Finally, an engine is fitted and ordinary flying 

 tests are carried out. In this way the successive steps in the devel- 

 opment of a new type are carried, with minimum of cost and danger, 

 to a point where the design of the full-sized airplane offers no 

 serious uncertainties. 



The tailless Storch (" Stork ") was developed on these lines. Plate 

 16, Figure 2, shows the Storch in model size; Plate 16, Figure 1, 

 in glider size ; and Plate 14, Figure 2, as a light-power airplane. 



Fitted with an 8-horsepower engine it attained a speed of 125 

 km./hr., and attracted much attention at tlie Tempelhof Flying 

 Ground by its speed, maneuvering, and great stability, and gave 

 impressive evidence in favor of this method of designing. The 

 question remains whether gliding is a sound basis for piloting a 

 power airplane. Opinion is divided, but it may be taken that glid- 

 ing is a sound basis for further training, and soon tests the balance, 

 touch, and eye. But a pupil who has mastered every branch of 

 gliding still requires comprehensive further training when he goes 

 on to power airplane piloting. Of far more importance than the 

 preliminary training in hand and eye, is the extension of piloting 

 experience to the special lore of the currents of the air, gathered in 

 far richer measure during a flight of a hundred kilometers from hill 

 to hill and from cloud to cloud, than in year-long flying on power 

 aircraft. Such experiences will give a new generation of flying 



