Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-pjpqr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-21T07:37:35.340Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Progress in Sailplane Design

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2016

K. G. Wilkinson
K. G. Wilkinson*
Affiliation:
British European Airways Corporation
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Compared with the general advance of aeronautics in the past decade, or indeed with sailplane development in the 20's and 30's, progress in sailplane design has recently been very leisurely. This is due in part to the fact that there is less scope and partly because little effort has been expended. The most important advances in the art have been in the understanding and use of meteorological conditions which make soaring flight possible; sailplanes good enough for the purpose have existed.

Before the Second World War the main design impetus came from Germany and Poland and in most current designs the German influence is still strongly evident. Since the war there have been outbreaks of activity in Switzerland (W.L.M.I., Moswey), Canada (where Shenstone and Czerwinski have inspired designs at Toronto) and in the United States. The total effort has not added up to that in pre-war Germany.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Aeronautical Journal , Volume 58 , Issue 523 , July 1954 , pp. 456 - 469
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Aeronautical Society 1954

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1. Shenstone, B.S. (1946). The D.F.S. Reiher Sailplane Aircraft Engineering, April 1946.Google Scholar
2. Zacher, HANS (1944). Ergebnisse der Leistungsmessungen und Flugeigenschaftsprüfung des Segelflugzeuges D30 “Cirrus.” Mitteilungen der Flugtechnischen Fachgruppen und Arbeitsgemeinschaften Folge 6/Sept. 1944.Google Scholar
3. Wilkinson, K. G. (1945). The Horten Tailless Aircraft. R.A.E. Report No. FA 259/1, October 1945.Google Scholar
4. Johnson, R.H. (1951). We break 500. Soaring, Sept.- Oct. 1951.Google Scholar
5. Raspet, A. (1951). Influence of Systematic Variations on the Drag Polar of the Sailplane R.J.5. Gliding Quarterly, July 1951.Google Scholar
6. Carmichael, B.H. (1951). An Analysis of Johnson's Flight. Soaring, Sept.-Oct. 1951.Google Scholar
7. Nusslein, R. and Friedrichs, E. G. (1943). Flugeigen-schaftsprüfung von Segelflugzeugen und Ergebnisse des Vergleichsfliegens 1941. Mitteilungen der Flugtechnischen Fachgruppen und Arbeitsgemeinschaften. Folge 5/1, October 1943.Google Scholar
8. Shenstone, B.S. (1953). Progress in Two Seater Sailplane Design. Aircraft Engineering, January 1953.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
9. Gordon, J.E. (1951). Plastics and Plastic Structures. Third Anglo-American Aeronautical Conference, Brighton, September 1951. Royal Aeronautical Society.Google Scholar
10. Wilkinson, K. G. (1951). The Design of Sailplanes for High Performance. Aircraft Engineering, September 1951.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
11. Loften, and Smith, (1949). Aerodynamic Characteristics of 15 N.A.C.A. Airfoil Sections at Seven Reynolds Num bers from 0.7xl06 to 9.0 x 106. N.A.C.A. T.N. 1945, October 1949.Google Scholar