Translation by Colin Anson

Gliding Olympia Booklet No.24 p.2 No doubt the sport of soaring is the youngest kind of sport, which only originated after the world war. These were the hardest times for the German nation after the unfortunate end of the war, when we were prohibited by the Allies from practicing any form of aviation. All flight equipment, all installations and hangars, had to be destroyed. For a long time, no-one could muster the courage to create a new aviation movement, until one day a group of young Germans who were enthusiastic about flying met on the in the Rhön in order to lay the foundations for reviving German aviation. If the diktat of Versailles forbade us to fly powered aeroplanes, we would have to rise into the skies without engines. So we were obliged to go back to the origins of flight, remember the original master Otto Lilienthal, and regenerate motorless flight, based on his ideas and experiments.

At first these initial trials were not taken seriously, especially abroad. However, these "phantasists", who quietly tried out their first slides and hops in primitive gliders they had cobbled together as well as conditions allowed, had no intention of amusing themselves with a trifling pastime. In tenacious and disciplined work they improved their achievements year by year so that even abroad one soon began to pay more serious attention to German progress.

The first trials at that time in the Rhön were of course pure gliding flights as at that time there was neither sufficient knowledge of the local rising wind currents, nor above all enough aerodynamic experience in the design of good performance sailplanes. In the first competition years 1920 and 21 especially Klemperer, Harth, Peltzner and Martens produced very useful results. The best flight performance was achieved by Harth with a flight of 21 ~ Minutes.

Soon machines with markedly improved aerodynamic designs were built on the basis of the practical experience being gathered. P3 And so, already in the following year of 1922, a very successful forward leap in the gliding movement occurred which laid the foundation stone of development in both the sporting and scientific fields. It is not too much to say that once again the sport showed science the way and paved the way for action. For only by the tremendous sporting achievements, which at first no-one dared to believe possible, and which became accomplished facts as early as during the third competition in 1922, began professional circles as well as general public to pay attention to soaring and its possibilities. Picture caption: "Eva" - aircraft of the Aviation Science Association Aachen over the Wasserkuppe slopes (One of the first sailplane designs) As a special incentive for those concerned with building sailplanes a prize of considerable value had been offered for the first to achieve a minimum duration flight of 40 minutes, then to return to the launch point and from there to complete a distance flight of 5 km measured in a straight line. In spite of the excellent flights of the previous year, these conditions were very demanding and opinions were devided as to whether they could P4 ever be fulfilled. Picture caption: Tented camp on the Wasserkuppe during the 1924 However Martens, who had been one of the most successful pilots of the Rhön during previous years, made all the pessimists eat their words: he launched in the afternoon of 18th August, 1924, in his "Vampyr" and stayed airborne for one hour and six minutes. After circling for 50 minutes at a height of one hundred metres between launch point and a neighbouring mountain ridge, he set out on a distance flight as stipulated in the prize conditions and landed ten kilometres away in the valley, 500 metres below launch point. The report, sent back by telegram, had a sensational effect. To-day, with Germany leading the world record listings, it is difficult to appreciate theastonishment and delight caused by this achievement. The gliding community, though even its members had no idea yet of the effects this performance on that August afternoon would have, were transported into a justified euphoria. But who could describe themood prevailing when on the next day Marten's fellow student from Hannover, Hentzen, stayed airborne for no less than two hours, ten minutes. And even this flight was exceeded by Hentzen himself, five days later, when on August 24th he splendidly circledsteadily and evenly for three hours and six minutes at a height of 300 metres over the Wasserkuppe, before landing near Gersfeld in complete darkness. p.5 captions:

p.6 caption: "Harth-Messerschmitt" starts his flight. The launch crew in the background.

Hugo Martens launches. He takes his cute Dachshund with him on the, hopefully, very long journey.

"Greif' sailplane of the technical college Hannover, in flight after launching from the Wasserkuppe in 1923.

Caption: Towards evening large log fires had been lit below, which showed the way to the capable pilot for a long way. As Hentzen set out towards the valley, the national anthem sounded from a hundred throats in his wake, which at that moment expressed not only a tremendous enthusiasm, but also an affirmation of affection for the enslaved German aviation which earned a new worldwide respect through these tremendous achievements.

GUnther Groenhoff in his "Fafnir"

p.7 caption: Sailplane "Westpreussen", a self-designed machine in which Ferdinand Schulz achieved several world records

But other competitors also performed excellently well and flights of 1 Y2 to 2 hours were achieved. At last a system of standards had been established, in accordance with which individual aviators and aviation groups had built their aircraft. They no longer simply designed "ad hoc". Science, sport and technology had fInally combined to work together.

Development advanced by leaps and bounds. Performance increased, and so in proportion did the number of new glider pilots and aviation enthusiasts. In addition to the RhOn, a new gliding site was discovered in East Prussia near Rossitten on the "Kurische Nehrung" - the spit of land dividing the lagoon of the Kurische Haff from the Baltic - and here, too, annual competition were organised. The sand dunes of the Nehrung are fundamentally different from the Rhön, nearly a hundred kilometeres long but of only some three kilometres maximum width. This terrain is excellently suitable for flying, and wind and weather conditions are quite favourable. In easterly wind directions the downs offer an excellent slope soaring location for distance flights.Presently, pilots no longer limited themselves to the east wind and the eminently excellent shore line of the p.8 lagoon but also soared the Baltic sea shore of the Nehrung, though the dunes were admittedly lower there.

Caption: A team of horses pulls three sailplanes to launch point

It was here that during the second coastal gliding competition in 1924 the East Prussian teacher Ferdinand Schulz achieved the world record duration flight of eight hours 42 minutes on his old SF3 and thereby brought the record achievement of eight hours seven minutes established by the Frenchman Barbot in 1923 back to Germany. It is surely not saying too much to state that this duration represents one of the greatest of all personal sporting achievements. The quality of this record flight is not diminished by the fact that later other pilots, and especially Schulz himself, performed longer flights. In the history of gliding flight this achievement forms a milestone in that it was achieved by the simplest means. Schulz had himself home-built his glider from the most primitive materials and without any previous technical training, and had mounted his machine without any preparation for the flight. In scanty clothing and without any provisions he persevered for these 8Y2 hours with dogged determination in the icy cold on his machine.

A further success for gliding was provided above all by the achievements during the 1926 Rhön gliding competition. The well-known glider pilot Max Kegel for the first time succeeded in performing a flight in a thunderstorm, establishing a new record by achieving a distance of 55.2 km. This flight was performed independently of the surface terrain solely by using lift in the free atmosphere.

P.9 Caption:

p.l0 Caption: Performance sailplane "Kassel 25" in flight during the Rhön competition 1932

The bunjy is hooked on at the nose of the glider Kegel launched in the midst of a heavy thunderstorm and set out in it on a distance flight by utilising the strong winds associated with the cumulus clouds. Nehring's flights during the same year of 1926 at wind speeds of as little as one or two metres per second proved to be of particular value for the further development of soaring flight. These flights finally provided the evidence to confirm that slope lift could be augmented by thermal air currents. The possibility of soaring over flat terrain was thereby presented as a new task for soaring flight. Wolf Hirth succeeded in finally solving this problem in September of 1930 during the first big gliding competition in America. Flying his sailplane "Musterle" he established two new American records with a distance flight of 55 km a maximum height of 1000 metres.This was the first purely thermal flight, performed in a completely cloudless sky. Due to the unequal warming or cooling of the ground there occur here and there rising air masses in the form of an air bubble.

P.11 Caption: A holding crew holds the machine back by the tail until the command "let go" is given

2nd Caption: The launch crew takes up position at the bunjy rope

It is the glider pilot's job to seize this air current and circle in it in order to climb with it.

The exploration of thermal lift for soaring flight above level ground was of particular value because just at that time a new launch method was originated in America, the Auto Launch. No longer is the glider catapulted by means of a bunjy rope to fly down into the valley, but a motor car pulls the glider into the air like a kite at the end of a long cable on a level airfield. p.12 When adequate height is reached the cable is released from the glider, which continues in free flight. This new launch method was soon adopted also in Germany and, thanks largely to Wolf Hirth, further progress was achieved. Large areas of Germany, which hitherto had been excluded from this new form of sporting aviation due to the nature of their terrain, were hereby opened up for soaring flight.

As mentioned above, this new launching method was first developed above all in America and also in England. In contrast, the first experiments of launching gliders by aero tow were carried out principally in Germany. This launch method came to be well known particularly because it soon made it possible to exceed the performance of slope launched gliders. The glider isattached to the powered aircraft by an approximately 120 metre long towrope.

Caption: “Walk!” – “Run!”

p.13 Caption: On the command "Let Go!" the holding crew lets the glider leap into the air. After the bunjy rope has fallenaway the machine continues in free flight.

During the aerotow launch the powered machine startsalong the ground, and immediately the much lighter glider leaves the ground, just as during an auto tow, and the powered machine only lifts off later. Both aircraft then either climb to greater heights, or the power plane tows the glider to the nearest area of lift where the sailplane begins a gliding or soaring flight after release. The gliding movement now gathered unexpected momentum. Throughout the Reich gliding schools and training locations were established, and many adherents of this new sport wererecruited. Soon, gliding came to be quite literally a "people's sport". The achievements of pioneers of individual specially talented pilots like Ferdinand Schulz, Johannes Nehring, Mayer-Aachen and Günther Groenhoff, who put their lives on the line for the sake of aviation, constantly spurred the new generation of glider pilots on to new and better performance.

Value and Preconditions of Soaring Flight

The great ambition of motorless flight, to enable man to speed through the realm of the air in flight like a bird purely with the aid of the natural force of the wind, has not yet been achieved and it appears doubtful whether p.14 we shall ever get close to it. Caption: The powered plane tows the sailplane to a great height by means of a long steel cable. There the sailplane will release it to continue in free flight.

So one can understand if here or there doubts are expressed as to whether there is a point in practising gliding or soaring flight - whether for sporting or scientific purposes - and whether the resources devoted to it to-day in the age of the powered aeroplane bear any reasonable proportion to its value. But to grant these doubters any justice would be fundamentally to misunderstand the nature of the concept. - The results achieved so far by soaring flight have not been disappointing, and if it has not produced a fundamental breakthrough it has nevertheless pointed the development of our aircraft into wholly new directions. And furthermore, it has had stimulating and fruitful effects on other fields of technology with which it has the utilisation of wind power in common. Surely it was no mere chance that the invention of the rotor vessel coincided in time with the blossoming of soaring research. Practical aerodynamics was strongly stimulated by soaring flight.

Even if flight without engine should gain no great economic significance compared with powered aviation, the gain in the fields of sport and science is very significant. And these are the very functions which principally p.15 encompass the tasks of motorless flight.

Caption: High performance sailplane "Moazagotl" in flight, piloted by Wolf Hirth.

It is certain that soaring flight has been of great importance in the development of to- day's powered aviation, in an countries throughout the world. There is still a widely held opinion that only the Great War made aviation possible. Certainly the war helped to solve many technical problems inaviation, which one only dared to address in wartime when money was no object and even the life of the individual was hardly worth anything. But by the same token it is also a fact that the war in many ways proved to be an obstacle to the development of aviation technology, and that machines were built which should never have been allowed to fly. For years, economic factors, which nowadays play such a fundamentally decisive role in aviation, were completely disregarded. These factors were only addressed when economy became everywhere the order of the day.

Soaring flight also had the effect of guiding the education of the next generation into new directions. Mechanics and engineers were enabled in the course of their training to acquire valuable experience from building flying machines with their own hands. From the first design sketch in the workshop to the transport to the airfield, to p.16 the process of rigging and servicing the machine during a competition, gaining practical experience in flying it,

Caption: in good flying weather up to 20 to 30 machines may form a gaggle under a single cloud

recovering the machine after a crash and repairing it - in short: down to the smallest detail of building and operating the machines everyone had to join in within their gliding groups. Furthermore, as this technology will inevitably lead to developing lightweight construction techniques, its novel experience gained through training in motorless flight will produce a generation of experienced lightweight- construction engineers. An advantage of the greatest importance!

The value of soaring as a sport has long been disputed, but happily it is now clear that sports aviation not only has the same right to exist as all other forms of sport, but is indeed one of the most attractive and valuable of them.

The practice of soaring sport in particular provides our youth with an excellent form of physical and mental education. Here the guiding principle is: one for all, all for one! To enable one comrade to have a flight, all will p.17 Caption: A young modeller at a model gliding competition. everyone p.18 have to retrieve the gliders up the hill to start point, eight, ten or more will have to man the bunjy rope. Thus, dedicated comradeship is at the heart of soaring sport.

Caption: A windsock indicates the precise wind direction at launch point. Every launch takes place into wind. If motorless flight is well on the way to becoming a sport of the whole of the German people and of German youth, thanks are due to the purposeful organisation of the whole of the German soaring sport within the umbrella organisation of German sporting aviation, the German Aviation Association, which saw the need for centralising the previously fragmented soaring sport immediately after its foundation under the resolute initiative of its president Bruno Loerzer, a holder of the Pour-le-Merite Order.

Soaring Technique

When a glider is catapulted upwards by means of the bunjy rope from a slope in a light wind, it cannot but sink back to the ground after a brief climb, due to its weight. The wings and control surfaces reduce the sinking speed, and thereby a diagonal downward glide path results. The aircraft glides down in the airflow in a way comparable to a toboggan. This kind flight p.19 is called gliding flight. The principal accelerating force is provided by the weight of the aircraft plus pilot.

Caption: View of the airfield on the Wasserkuppe in the Rhön during a competition

We can only talk of soaring flight if the machine is capable of climbing above the launch point and maintaining height.

Caption: The sailplanes of the local gliding groups are transported by motor cars to the sites of big competitions in transport trailers. p.20 Soaring aces climb as high as the clouds, or even higher. But even the best sailplane cannot but descend in every second due to its weight of several hundredweight. So how can we explain its capacity to reach every greater heights in spite of this? Rising air currents carry the aircraft upwards, the distance from the surface increases, but within the air current it descends at a rate of sink which may, for example, amount to 70cm per second. But ifthe air rises by 100cm per second, the sailplane will gain 100 minus 70cm, which equals 30 cm above the surface. We can explain this process by comparison with an escalator. If we step on an escalator, we will be carried upwards. But if we slowly descend the steps of the up-elevator, we will nonetheless carried upwards, since our movement is slower than the upward speed of the escalator.

Caption: Calibration sections use their range finders and special instruments to check height and distance of sailplanes. p.21 Caption: Fellow pilots and spectators follow the flights of the competitors with rapt attention.

Soif we moved at the same speed, we should remain at the same height, and if we move faster than the escalator we would descend. Among rising air current which facilitate soaring flights we distinguish between the pure hill lift, rising warm air currents (thermals), cloud lift and frontal lift.

1. Hill Lift. The pilot needs to detect the rising air currents required for soaring. He will use clues such as clouds and soaring birds. It depends on the delicate soaring sensitivities of the pilot to find such aircurrents, but we do now have technically refined instruments to help him in this task. Hill lift occurs at rising features of the ground, that is above all mountains, which slope downwards towards the direction of the wind. When the wind encounters a mountain, it will at first p.22 Caption: The tail-less sailplane "Stadt Magdeburg", an interesting special design

dam up against it, then rise up the slope and will descend down its rear elevation. The strength of the air current increases with increasing height. This will be felt by every walker who climbs from the valley up to the summit. The hill lift will be especially favourable if the area in front of the slope is flat, so that the wind can blow up against the hill unhindered. This is why the sand dunes of Rossitten, Leba and the isle of Sylt are especially suitable for soaring although they are quite low. The launch point will always be selected so as to face into wind.

2. Warm Air Lift (Thermals). In hot summer weather you can see a strange shimmering scintillation above corn fields, roof tiles, rocks etc. This is hot air rising. If in such condition we are walking along a stony or sandy path, we will find the heat quite oppressive, and notice the refreshing contrast of cool meadow paths, in a forestor at a lake shore.Here the rays of the sun will not have the same heating effect. Thus, the process of heating varies, because the sunrays do not heat the air directly, but the surface which will pass the heat on unevenly, depending on the nature of the ground. The warmed air becomes lighter due to expansion. The warmed air collects up to a given volume, then detaches from the ground and rises to be carried away by the wind like an invisible balloon. If a sailplane meets up with such a warm air duct, it must try to stay circling within it for as long as possible in order to be carried along with it. Due to its own sink speed it will gradually arrive at the bottom end of this thermal duct and will now have to look for another air current in gliding flight. It will, however, have gained considerable height in the course of this process. While in the early days of soaring, as mentioned before, use p.23 was made almost exclusively of hill lift, the principal power source nowadays is the thermal. On their distance flights, - experienced soaring pilots use their dexterity to utilise both kinds of lift. Soaring over the agglomeration of houses of a city which has recently been repeatedly demonstrated, can be explained by the principles of thermal lift. We are all of us familiar with the turbulence experienced in even the largest passenger aircraft when it reaches forest or water after a flight over heath country. So a soaring pilot must also know about the areas of sink, and how to avoid them, so as not to lose height he had worked hard to attain.

3. Cloud Lift The beautiful multi-shaped cumulus clouds are the soaring pilot's very welcome friends. When they appear in the sky it gladdens his heart. Especially during competitions they are keenly longed-for, and as soon as they appear a lively flying activity is called into action. "That's the one I'll latch on to" a pilot will call out, pointing aloft.

Caption: The Technical Commission (Teko) checking the aircraft to determine acceptance for the competition p.24 Caption: 's distance competition record breaking sailplane. High performance sailplane type "Fafnir II"

To the layman this sounds like aviation jargon, but soon he will be able to see to his amazement that this is the literal truth. After gaining more and more height by continuous circling over the slope, he will set course for the cloud and let its heat chimney lift him up to the cloud, to set out with it on his distance task until it loses strength as it dissolves. Cloud lift is without doubt one of the most important kinds of vertical thermal currents. Clouds suitable for this purpose travel at an average height of between 1000 and 1800 metres, have a horizontal base and often bulge up to a height of up to 4000 metres. Under, at and above cumulus clouds the soaring pilot finds strong lift.Such cloud flights make great demands of p.25 Caption: It's All Hands On Deck when a sailplane has to be taken to launch-point.

both pilot and aircraft. The rising and sinking currents of the air movements within a cloud of this kind are of undreamt-of strength and speed. Only the most experienced can fly into the interior of the clouds, in specially strongly built aircraft. The first to make this experiment was Hans Mayer of Aachen in 1932, and he achieved a height of over 2000 metres.

4. Frontal Lift The approach of a thunderstorm from on hot summer days usually signals its arrival by means of a huge towering wall of cloud. After the "quiet before the storm" nature becomes turbulent. The temperature decreases, large raindrops, often frozen into hailstones by the cold, rattle down and the storm lashes the trees. But even such tempests have lately come to be accepted as being good soaring weather. Even before this magnificent natural spectacle begins, the pilots will have taken their aircraft to launch point. With the arrival of the first gusts of wind the order "Let Go!" is given and they p.26 approach the rolling thunder front. The massive inundation of cold air causes the warm air at the front of the cloud to rise with tremendous force, comparable to the wind rising up a mountain slope. With the progress of the thunderstorm this lift travels kilometer by kilometer across country. If the pilot has found the correct contact with such a thunderstorm front the will travel ahead of it if he keeps the appropriate spacing which must be maintained. He must be careful to avoid entering the cloud as the air currents raging there will make any controlled flying impossible. It is easy to become a helpless toy of the violent heights. That is how the fabric of Günter Groenhoff's machine was lacerated by hailstones during an attempt to get close to such a cloud.

Caption: The aircraft has been cleared to compete - a crew member is already painting the competition number on the wings

Depending on prevailing weather conditions these varying kinds of lift can act together. The ideal to aim for would be a p.27 soaring flight which would combine all of these different forms of lift.

Caption: In this machine, the "Condor", Dittmar achieved his world height record of 4670 m in South America

The possibility of utilising good thermal lift while in stormy weather conditions made it possible for the first time in 1934 during the 15th Rhön soaring competition to perform unheard-of distance flights. In the year 1930 Günter Groenhoff had established the world record distance performance for sailplanes with a distance of 275 kilometres. For four years our most capable glider pilots tried in vain to exceed this achievement. They did not succeed ineven getting anywhere near it. The 15th Rhön competition delivered a big surprise when Groenhoff's achievement was considerably improved upon not just once, but not less than four times during two of the contest days. Heini Dittmar's flight even exceeded Groenhoff's performance by 100 kilometres. It is beyond doubt that these four distance flights of over 300 kilometres did not happen by p.28 chance.

Caption: The high performance sailplane "Thermikus" flies silently towards the sun

This is proved by their planned and considered execution: Groenhoff's flight was a pure storm front flight. But storm fronts appear during the course of a competition purely by chance. Besides, such fronts travel at an average speed of 40 to 50 kmh, so that a sailplane would need at least six to seven hours in order to exceed the achievement of 275 kilometres. To allow enough time, therefore, such a thunderstorm would have to appear during the early forenoon. This only happens very rarely, making it very difficult to exceed these distance performance by making use of thunderstorm fronts. The record breaking flights referred to above were made possible solely by a combination of good thermal conditions and strong winds so that the sailplane acquires avery high cross country speed of up to 80 km/h. This was the only way in which such distances could be flown in a flight time of barely five hours.The technique applied to performing these, one might call them wind- thermal-flights, is roughly as follows: after launch the aircraft flies towards a cloud with the help of strong slope lift. p.29 Caption: Two high performance sailplanes circling in a thermal Caption: Machines which had been dismantled for transport are rigged on the airfield p.30 Caption: The machines lie in wait for favourable flying conditions at the top of the slope

and then circles below it up to a great height. Then it sets off on the distance flight at high speed with the help of the tail wind until it needs again to gain height under a cloud. This thermal flying technique has the advantage of needing fewer pauses for climbs, in contrast to pure thermal flights in which you have to work your way again and again from one thermal to the next, making only slow progress. Up to recently it had not been possible to utilise this combination of wind and thermals, the so- called wind-thermalling technique (read: "downwind dash"), as the method of thermalling isonly two years old and it was thought that in strong winds there would hardly be any thermal lift. Existing thermals were utilised only in calm conditions and one did not make use of it in stormy weather. To-day, thermal flight has been developed in soaring practice to such a degree that one is able to master it even in strong winds and thereby to make use of a new opportunity which at a stroke enables soaring flight to cover longer distances The limits of soaring flights have expanded and it is conceivable that in steady weather conditions ten hours may be available for distance flights, and distances beyond to-day's peak performances might be achieved. It is not a bad thing that soaring flight is hereby released from relying on storm front flights for achieving great distances.

p.31 Caption: Performance sailplane "Grunau Baby II" is launched during the 1934 Rhon soaring competition at the Wasserkuppe

Soaring Records In 1934, Germany's lead in the field of soaring flight was eminently confirmed through the world record performances of our soaring pilots. In February of that year, during the soaring expedition to South America of the German Aviation Sports Association, Heini Dittmar achieved a new world height record for Germany with his flight of 4670 metres, during the Rhön competition he established a new- world distance record with a flight of 375 kilometres. Since the autumn of 1933, the duration world record is held by Schmidt from Königsberg with a duration flight of 36 ½ hours. These world-beating performances are especially significant as they were not the result of pure chance, but that our soaring pilots were able to achieve large numbers of almost equal performances. For example, the existing world distance record of272 kilometres was p.32 exceeded four times. Hoffmann of Mannheim flew a distance of 310 kilometres, Wiegmeyer of Darmstadt 315 kilometres, Heini Dittmar 375 kilometres and Wolf Hirth 351 kilometres. Hirth held the world title for one day, which Dittmar acquired with his performance after Hirth's flight.

Soaring Flight becomes a Demonstration Display at the Olympic Games.

In order to enable new, valuable kinds of sport to prove themselves before the best sportsmen and women of all nations, the host nation at the Olympic Games has the right to demonstrate a national sport in the form of a display. Germany's representatives on the Olympic Committee chose Soaring Flight.

For the first time this young sport, perfected in Germany, has the opportunity of proving itself with the eyes of the whole world upon it. More than 3500 of the best sportsmen and women and the leading sports personalities of more than 50 nations will have the opportunity, perhaps for the first time in their lives, to see proper soaring flight performed.

Caption: A companionable group of soaring pilots at the spit roast.

Followed by a bibliography, and the list of the 26 Olympia Booklets.