Who first used water ballast and when?

I want to find out the year when water ballast was
first used. I believe it was George Tabery who first
used it, but someone may prove me wrong. If anyone
has access to Soaring magazine Nov 1981, it may give
more details in Tabery's obituary there. Thank you

I want to find out the year when water ballast was
first used. I believe it was George Tabery who first
used it, but someone may prove me wrong.

I seem to recall reading that water ballast was used as early as the
late 1940s or early 1950s (even in an early Schweizer glider built for
competition?). But my recollection of the beginning of the "modern" era
was seeing Wil Schuemann's modified 301 Libelle at Chester one year
(1969?) with water installed. He'd been flying around for a few years
at absolute minimum weight--he even flew with his shoes off at one
contest.

Then, in one of the dramatic moves for which he became known, he took
the opposite tack. He ordered two 24-foot lengths of (IIRC) 4" extruded
Tygon tubing, sealed one end, made up fittings for the other end, slid
them into the Libelle wings, and filled up with 240 lbs. of water.

He may not have been the first guy to do it but he seemed to spark a
mad rush to jam water ballast (the original yellow [Jim] Smiley bags
that so many here in the U.S. bought) into every existing fiberglass
glider. Also about that time, water became available as a factory
option on some European ships (e.g., Libelle 201, Diamant 16.5). It may
have been one of those things where several people all decided at about
the same time that the empty leading edges of the new composite
structures were a wonderful place to put disposable ballast without
overloading the structure.

Chip Bearden
ASW 24 "JB"

The Schweizer 1-21 had water ballast in 1947.

This is the same year that George Tabery earned his Silver C.

Mike



wrote:
I want to find out the year when water ballast was
first used. I believe it was George Tabery who first
used it, but someone may prove me wrong.

I seem to recall reading that water ballast was used as early as the
late 1940s or early 1950s (even in an early Schweizer glider built for
competition?). But my recollection of the beginning of the "modern" era
was seeing Wil Schuemann's modified 301 Libelle at Chester one year
(1969?) with water installed. He'd been flying around for a few years
at absolute minimum weight--he even flew with his shoes off at one
contest.

Then, in one of the dramatic moves for which he became known, he took
the opposite tack. He ordered two 24-foot lengths of (IIRC) 4" extruded
Tygon tubing, sealed one end, made up fittings for the other end, slid
them into the Libelle wings, and filled up with 240 lbs. of water.

He may not have been the first guy to do it but he seemed to spark a
mad rush to jam water ballast (the original yellow [Jim] Smiley bags
that so many here in the U.S. bought) into every existing fiberglass
glider. Also about that time, water became available as a factory
option on some European ships (e.g., Libelle 201, Diamant 16.5). It may
have been one of those things where several people all decided at about
the same time that the empty leading edges of the new composite
structures were a wonderful place to put disposable ballast without
overloading the structure.

Chip Bearden
ASW 24 "JB"

Martin Simon's book on Schweizer gliders referring
to the 1-21 states that the Germans had proposed the
idea as far back as 1934 and I think Riedel in one
of his book talks about a Minimoa with provision for
water ballast -although don't think it was dumpable.

According to Simons (Sailplanes 1920-1945, p. 94), the 1933 Moazagotl
had a 50 liter tank with dump valve in the fuselage. The Moazagotl
inspired the later Minimoa = mini-Moazagotl (1935).

When was water first sanctioned in contests? I read
somewhere in Soaring that some of the pilots at Marfa
back in the 60s were putting 'suspicious looking packages'
behind them on the spars. The inference was that they
might have been heavy metal and possibly illegal.
Weren't gliders once weighed at contests?

At 18:48 13 October 2006, Nick Olson wrote:
Martin Simon's book on Schweizer gliders referring
to the 1-21 states that the Germans had proposed the
idea as far back as 1934 and I think Riedel in one
of his book talks about a Minimoa with provision for
water ballast -although don't think it was dumpable.

When was water first sanctioned in contests? I read
somewhere in Soaring that some of the pilots at Marfa
back in the 60s were putting 'suspicious looking packages'
behind them on the spars. The inference was that they
might have been heavy metal and possibly illegal.
Weren't gliders once weighed at contests?

At 18:48 13 October 2006, Nick Olson wrote:
Martin Simon's book on Schweizer gliders referring
to the 1-21 states that the Germans had proposed the
idea as far back as 1934 and I think Riedel in one
of his book talks about a Minimoa with provision for
water ballast -although don't think it was dumpable.

Chatting with my father on this subject...he mentioned
that Johnny Robinson(US Diamond#1 and multi-time US
Champ) had weights atttached to push-rods in his Zaonia
fuselage...which he could use to adjust his cg...this
being back in the '40's.

Nyal Williams wrote:

When was water first sanctioned in contests? I read
somewhere in Soaring that some of the pilots at Marfa
back in the 60s were putting 'suspicious looking packages'
behind them on the spars. The inference was that they
might have been heavy metal and possibly illegal.
Weren't gliders once weighed at contests?

There were no design limitations for contest sailplanes until the
advent of the standard class. If memory serves, the first version of
the standard class rules said: no retractable wheel, no jettisonable
ballast. But then the manufacturers made wheels that barely emerged
from the fuselage, making for difficult take-offs and hazardous
out-landings, and pilots took lead shot, iron bars and the likes on
board to maximize the wing loading, making for high energy landings. So
the CIVV (now IGC) chose to allow retractable wheels and water ballast
in the interest of safety, instead of further complicating the rules.

In article .com,
stephanevdv writes

Nyal Williams wrote:

When was water first sanctioned in contests? I read
somewhere in Soaring that some of the pilots at Marfa
back in the 60s were putting 'suspicious looking packages'
behind them on the spars. The inference was that they
might have been heavy metal and possibly illegal.
Weren't gliders once weighed at contests?

There were no design limitations for contest sailplanes until the
advent of the standard class. If memory serves, the first version of
the standard class rules said: no retractable wheel, no jettisonable
ballast. But then the manufacturers made wheels that barely emerged
from the fuselage, making for difficult take-offs and hazardous
out-landings, and pilots took lead shot, iron bars and the likes on
board to maximize the wing loading, making for high energy landings. So
the CIVV (now IGC) chose to allow retractable wheels and water ballast
in the interest of safety, instead of further complicating the rules.

There was a comp. in 1954 at Gt Hucklow, Derbyshire, UK, an a bunch of
gliders came from Europe to compete.

At the time there were severe limitations on the import of wines and
spirits.

There was a rumour that the French pilots filled their ballast tanks
with red wine, which they drained into barrels when they arrived.

I cant vouch for the truth of this, but it does indicate that water
ballast goes back at least 50 years.
--
Mike Lindsay