If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below. |
|
|
Thread Tools | Display Modes |
#1
|
|||
|
|||
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 |
#2
|
|||
|
|||
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. 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" |
#3
|
|||
|
|||
Who first used water ballast and when?
|
#4
|
|||
|
|||
Who first used water ballast and when?
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. |
#5
|
|||
|
|||
Who first used water ballast and when?
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). |
#6
|
|||
|
|||
Who first used water ballast and when?
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. |
#7
|
|||
|
|||
Who first used water ballast and when?
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. |
#8
|
|||
|
|||
Who first used water ballast and when?
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. |
#9
|
|||
|
|||
Who first used water ballast and when?
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. |
#10
|
|||
|
|||
Who first used water ballast and when?
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 |
Thread Tools | |
Display Modes | |
|
|