In article , Jason
Armistead writes
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/ !

About 60 years ago the Germans had a fighter which was virtually a
rocket launched glider. The rocket used very concentrated hydrogen
peroxide reacting with hydrazine.

They used to train pilots by towing it empty behind something like a
Heinkel 111. And, so they get used to aero-towing, they started by
giving them a few A/Ts in conventional gliders.

The mission profile was to launch when the B17s were quite close, climb
up above the bomber formation and have a go at them on the way down.

If there was any fuel remaining in the tanks after the climb, the
machine had a nasty habit of exploding on landing.
--
Mike Lindsay