MAKING A GLIDER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20384, 12 October 1929, Page 12

MAKING A GLIDER.

WORK OF AUCKLAND BOYS.

FIRST FLIGHT VERY SOON.

OPERATIONS OF - LOCAL CLUB.

' Two boys, aged about 15, are now putting the final touches on the first glider to bo built in Auckland* They have been working on it at their home in Parnell for about five months, and have strong hopes that they will be able to carry out trial flights well boforo their Christmas holidays. The boys avo members of the Auckland Model Aero and Gliding Club, and although they havo done most of the work themselves, they prefer to remain anonymous and allow the credit for the construction of the glider to. go to . tho club as a whole. The glider is built throughout of spruco and oregon, carefully curved and fitted, with tho wings covered with "doped" aero silk. Tho workmanship would not discredit skilled craftsmen. When completed, the entire weight of tho glider will bo only 1201b. Tho pilot sits in a small bucket-seat in the front, and tho only control ho has to operate consists of a single "joystick" which works the ruddor and tail wings. A glider floats on tho wind, and the pilot has no need to worry about any defect- that may occur in an engine. Auckland's first craft of the typo is about 10ft. long, with a wing span of about 20ft. It is built on tlio design of the ordinary school glider, not of tho "sail plane" which has established some wonderful distance records. Under favourable conditions it should fly for a distance of from a quartor-of-a-niilo to a mile.

The Auckland Model Aero and Gliding Club was established largely through the efforts of Mr. F. C. Macdonald. It is the first club in the Southern Hemisphere to bo affiliated with tho Society of Mechanical Aeronautical Engineers of Great Britain. This was done to ensure that any records established by members of the club would be classed as official. It is held that such clubs perform a valuablo work by imparting some valuablo "air sense" to boys who may later wish to join a fully-fledged aero club. With the Auckland Club and the University Students' Club both possessing keen member's, the sport of gliding should becomo very popular in the city before long. Just at present the Auckland Club is searching for a suitable ground to carry out its first flights. It was thought that tlie sand dunes on tho West Coast might meet requirements, but what tho club really needs is the use of a large open space with a slight fall into the prevailing wind.