On Wednesday, October 19, 2016 at 8:15:04 PM UTC-4, Michael Opitz wrote:
At 21:40 19 October 2016, wrote:
On Wednesday, October 19, 2016 at 4:28:32 PM UTC-4, Tango
Eight wrote:
"Mine's shorter."

"No way. Mine's shorter!"

"Bull****, I have video."

First for everything....

T8

I said mine was longer!
LOL
UH

During WWII (1943), the Germans developed a system they called
Starrschlepp in order to tow combat gliders at night and in IFR
conditions. They used an articulated metal shaft that was about one
meter long. After the war, the US Army Air Corps developed a
similar system through information gained from Operation Paperclip
(otherwise known as the "brain drain"). My father was the primary
person involved in this knowledge transfer. It eventually led to the
current air refueling (by boom) method in use by the USAF today. See:
http://www.luftarchiv.de/index.htm?/...te/schlepp.htm
So there you go.. Does anyone else have shorter than one meter??
Piggyback (bolted on like the Space Shuttle) doesn't count. The
Germans had those in WWII also.

RO

I had the privilege in the early 90's of hearing Rudy explain the process of going to an ever shorter rope during the war. This was at a club meeting. The hairs on the back of my neck still stand up thinking about one meter of tow space. He did claim that the shorer the rope the less difficulty for the glider pilot.