An unusual historical question for the combined genius of the list ...

While visiting Ray Ash at Gulgong on Saturday (to scan some great old
photos of the early days of Southern Cross Gliding Club for our Back
To Camden Week starting 20th September), we were looking through Ray's
early log book.

It's a British Gliding Association one, marked as 3rd Reprint 1949.

On the inside front cover, it lists the Types of Launch as:

C = Catapult
W = Winch
M = Motor car-tow
A = Aero-tow

and

R = Rocket assisted

OK, while I can accept that catapult might be another word for Bungy
launching, I was a bit taken aback by the notion of launching a glider
with a ROCKET ! Ray mentioned he'd never really noticed that before
either.

I wonder if anyone can point me to any solid evidence of rocket
assisted launching of gliders by the British or others.

It sounds like a novel, if somewhat dangerous, way to get airborne in
a sailplane !

Cheers

Jason Armistead
Southern Cross Gliding Club
Camden NSW
Visit http://www.gliding.com.au/ !