John, if I didn't know you were an excellent pilot
and instructor, I'd swear you were an Anorak.
Chris.
At 05:12 25 October 2005, John H. Campbell wrote:
Happy birthday, soaring. The 'first' soaring flight
was the 9 minutes and
45 seconds of hovering over Kitty Hawk dunes by Orville
Wright, in the
Wright 'No. 5' glider on October 24, 1911. This was
no milestone on the way
to powered flight, 'started' on December 17, 1903 (by
Orville also, with
brother Wilbur). By then, Bleriot had flown the English
channel, major
airshows had taken place, the Wright aeroplane company
was filling plenty of
orders. Yet Orville went soaring. Beating this first
FAI glider duration
record took almost 10 years (Wolf Klemperer, 8/30/21,
13:03 min) and was a
major motivation for the Wasserkuppe meetings.