NEWEST AIR SPORT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20341, 23 August 1929, Page 13

NEWEST AIR SPORT.

GLIDERS FOR SYDNEY.

[from our own correspondent.]

SYDNEY, A up. 15

If all goes w" with Sydney University Gliders' Club, at least' two or threo of the quaint, and sinjplo motorless gliders, now .so popular in Germany, and not unlike ordinary motor-driven aeroplanes in general appearance, will be hovering oyer Sydney like great eagles by March or April of next year. In Germany, where even youngsters in thousands arc cruising about the air in gliders, these machines have achieved nonstop flights up to 100 miles, and have attained an altitude of anything up to 5000 ft., but the young university students will probably prefer to walk before they can run, and not take too many risks before they are properly initiated into the arts of gliding. Gliders ought to be popular in Sydney, not only as a medium of thrilling sport, but also because of their comparative cheapness, compared with the cost of an ordinary aeroplane. If the students in the engineering section can design and construct their own gliders —this is the aim, with the aid of an expert aircraft committee—then it will cost tliem merely from £2O to £25 for the necessary material. On the ground of safety first the club will definitely limit the number of non-technical members. Students at Melbourne University are also talking of a gliders' club. The spectacle of gliders, or sailing planes, being shot into the air like torpedoes in Sydney, on the catapult principle, with an elastic rope, will be worth looking forward to.