wrote:

Often
airplanes with clipped wings or very small engines were used, referred
to as penguins, because they would barely get into the air, and could
not climb out of ground effect.

Actually, Rick, as far as the French schools were concerned, the Penguins could
not fly at all. From what I've read, this is also true of the American Penguin
aircraft I saw pictured in Sport Pilot a year or so back. The second stage of
French flight schools was the "roller" class, which used planes such as you
describe. According to Nordhoff & Hall, the rollers "could fly, but you weren't
supposed to let them."

George Patterson
The desire for safety stands against every great and noble enterprise.