58-528: The Colditz Cock was a glider built by British prisoners of war during World War II for an escape attempt from Oflag IV-C ( Colditz Castle ) prison camp in Germany. After the execution of 50 prisoners who had taken part in the " Great Escape " from Stalag Luft III , the Allied High Command had discouraged escape attempts, though the plan to build a glider was encouraged in order to divert
116-539: A kite as they worked towards achieving powered flight. They returned to glider testing in 1911 by removing the motor from one of their later designs. In the inter-war years, recreational gliding flourished in Germany under the auspices of Rhön-Rossitten . In the United States, the Schweizer brothers of Elmira, New York, manufactured sport sailplanes to meet the new demand. Sailplanes continued to evolve in
174-435: A car or boat rather than being capable of free flight. These are known as rotor kites . However rotary-winged gliders, 'gyrogliders', were investigated that could descend like an autogyro , using the lift from rotors to reduce the vertical speed. These were evaluated as a method of dropping people or equipment from other aircraft. A paper plane, paper aeroplane (UK), paper airplane (US), paper glider, paper dart or dart
232-469: A fellow monk and historian, to have flown off the roof of his Abbey in Malmesbury , England, sometime between 1000 and 1010 AD, gliding about 200 metres (220 yd) before crashing and breaking his legs. According to these reports, both used a set of (feathery) wings, and both blamed their crash on the lack of a tail. Hezârfen Ahmed Çelebi is alleged to have flown a glider with eagle-like wings over
290-516: A glider. The Space Shuttle and its Soviet equivalent, the Buran shuttle , were by far the fastest ever aircraft. Recent examples of rocket glider include the privately funded SpaceShipOne which is intended for sub-orbital flight and the XCOR EZ-Rocket which is being used to test engines. Most unpowered rotary-wing aircraft are kites rather than gliders, i.e. they are usually towed behind
348-654: A mental hospital for long-term care, with little hope of recovery. Colonel Preston immediately forbids any further escape attempts along the same lines. The method of escape is based on that used by Ion Ferguson , a Royal Army Medical Corps doctor imprisoned in Colditz, who certified a number of prisoners as insane in Stalag IV-D , who were then repatriated to Britain. Ferguson then feigned his own insanity to gain repatriation in 1945. Ferguson detailed his escape in his account of his wartime experiences, Doctor at War , and
406-409: A motor mounted on a wheeled frame rather than the pilot's back. There can be confusion between gliders, hang gliders, and paragliders . Paragliders and hang gliders are both foot-launched glider aircraft and in both cases the pilot is suspended ("hangs") below the lift surface. "Hang glider" is the term for those where the airframe contains rigid structures, whereas the primary structure of paragliders
464-860: A new museum display in the Chapel Attic in Colditz castle, and opened to the public on the 70th Anniversary of the Liberation of Colditz in April 2015. The book Flight from Colditz by Tony Hoskins was published by Pen & Sword in the UK in April 2016. It tells not only the story of the original example built by the prisoners, but also details the other replicas built and on display. Data from British Gliders and Sailplanes General characteristics Performance 51°07′53″N 12°48′26″E / 51.13139°N 12.80722°E / 51.13139; 12.80722 Glider (aircraft) A glider
522-490: A one-third scale model to be constructed. This was eventually launched from the castle roof in 1993. A set of plans for the glider are in the collection of the Imperial War Museum . A flyable expanded polystyrene model of the glider was produced by the model kit manufacturer Airfix in its Skycraft range in the 1970s. In 1999, a full-sized replica of the Colditz glider was commissioned by Channel 4 and
580-559: A patent US Patent 3131894 on the Parafoil which had sectioned cells in an aerofoil shape; an open leading edge and a closed trailing edge, inflated by passage through the air – the ram-air design. The 'Sail Wing' was developed further for recovery of NASA space capsules by David Barish. Testing was done by using ridge lift . After tests on Hunter Mountain , New York in September 1965, he went on to promote " slope soaring " as
638-517: A potential escape method at Oflag IV-C near the end of the war in 1944. Foot-launched aircraft had been flown by Lilienthal and at the meetings at Wasserkuppe in the 1920s. However the innovation that led to modern hang gliders was in 1951 when Francis Rogallo and Gertrude Rogallo applied for a patent for a fully flexible wing with a stiffening structure. The American space agency NASA began testing in various flexible and semi-rigid configurations of this Rogallo wing in 1957 in order to use it as
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#1732779767384696-544: A recovery system for the Gemini space capsules . Charles Richards and Paul Bikle developed the concept producing a wing that was simple to build which was capable of slow flight and as gentle landing. Between 1960 and 1962 Barry Hill Palmer used this concept to make foot-launched hang gliders, followed in 1963 by Mike Burns who built a kite-hang glider called Skiplane . In 1963, John W. Dickenson began commercial production. January 10, 1963 American Domina Jalbert filed
754-412: A summer activity for ski resorts (apparently without great success). NASA originated the term "paraglider" in the early 1960s, and ‘paragliding’ was first used in the early 1970s to describe foot-launching of gliding parachutes. Although their use is mainly recreational, unmanned paragliders have also been built for military applications e.g. Atair Insect . The main application today of glider aircraft
812-551: A wide variety of types differing in the construction of their wings, aerodynamic efficiency, location of the pilot, controls and intended purpose. Most exploit meteorological phenomena to maintain or gain height. Gliders are principally used for the air sports of gliding , hang gliding and paragliding . However some spacecraft have been designed to descend as gliders and in the past military gliders have been used in warfare. Some simple and familiar types of glider are toys such as paper planes and balsa wood gliders. Glider
870-462: Is a fixed-wing aircraft that is supported in flight by the dynamic reaction of the air against its lifting surfaces, and whose free flight does not depend on an engine. Most gliders do not have an engine, although motor-gliders have small engines for extending their flight when necessary by sustaining the altitude (normally a sailplane relies on rising air to maintain altitude) with some being powerful enough to take off by self-launch . There are
928-709: Is a toy aircraft (usually a glider) made out of paper or paperboard; the practice of constructing paper planes is sometimes referred to as aerogami (Japanese: kamihikōki), after origami, the Japanese art of paper folding. Model glider aircraft are flying or non-flying models of existing or imaginary gliders, often scaled-down versions of full size planes, using lightweight materials such as polystyrene , balsa wood , foam and fibreglass . Designs range from simple glider aircraft, to accurate scale models , some of which can be very large. Larger outdoor models are usually radio-controlled gliders that are piloted remotely from
986-608: Is done by individual designers and home builders. Unlike a sailplane, a hang glider is capable of being carried, foot launched and landed solely by the use of the pilot's legs. In a hang glider the shape of the wing is determined by a structure, and it is this that distinguishes them from the other main type of foot-launched aircraft, paragliders , technically Class 3. Some hang gliders have engines, and are known as powered hang gliders . Due to their commonality of parts, construction and design, they are usually considered by aviation authorities to be hang gliders, even though they may use
1044-469: Is not a direct one-to-one relationship between the real and televised characters, most of the televised characters are loosely based on one or several actual persons. The most obvious are Pat Grant ( Pat Reid ) and Hauptmann Ulmann ( Reinhold Eggers ). No mention was made in the series of Squadron Leader/Group Captain Douglas Bader , the real-life RAF pilot who lost both legs in a plane crash before
1102-563: Is sport and recreation. Gliders were developed from the 1920s for recreational purposes. As pilots began to understand how to use rising air, gliders were developed with a high lift-to-drag ratio . These allowed longer glides to the next source of ' lift ', and so increase their chances of flying long distances. This gave rise to the popular sport known as gliding although the term can also be used to refer to merely descending flight. Such gliders designed for soaring are sometimes called sailplanes. Gliders were mainly built of wood and metal but
1160-714: Is supple, consisting mainly of woven material. Military gliders were used mainly during the Second World War for carrying troops and heavy equipment (see Glider infantry ) to a combat zone, including the British Airspeed Horsa , Russian Polikarpov BDP S-1 , American Waco CG-3 , Japanese Kokusai Ku-8 , and German Junkers Ju 322 . These aircraft were towed into the air and most of the way to their target by military transport planes, e.g. C-47 Dakota , or by bombers that had been relegated to secondary activities, e.g. Short Stirling . Once released from
1218-458: Is the agent noun form of the verb to glide . It derives from Middle English gliden , which in turn derived from Old English glīdan . The oldest meaning of glide may have denoted a precipitous running or jumping, as opposed to a smooth motion. Scholars are uncertain as to its original derivation, with possible connections to "slide", and "light" having been advanced. Early pre-modern accounts of flight are in most cases difficult to verify and it
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#17327797673841276-413: Is the basis for most recreational flights and competitions, though aerobatics and 'spot landing competitions' also occur. Launching is often done by jogging down a slope, but winch launches behind a towing vehicle are also used. A Paramotor is a paraglider wing powered by a motor attached to the back of the pilot, and is also known as a powered paraglider . A variation of this is the paraplane , which has
1334-459: Is unclear whether each craft was a glider, kite or parachute and to what degree they were truly controllable. Often the event is only recorded a long time after it allegedly took place. A 17th-century account reports an attempt at flight by the 9th-century poet Abbas Ibn Firnas near Córdoba, Spain which ended in heavy back injuries. The monk Eilmer of Malmesbury is reported by William of Malmesbury ( c. 1080 – c. 1143 ),
1392-742: The Bell X-1 in 1946 up to the North American X-15 spent more time flying unpowered than under power. In the 1960s research was also done on unpowered lifting bodies and on the X-20 Dyna-Soar project, but although the X20 was cancelled, this research eventually led to the Space Shuttle. NASA 's Space Shuttle first flew on April 12, 1981. The Shuttle re-entered at Mach 25 at the end of each spaceflight , landing entirely as
1450-705: The Bosphorus strait from the Galata Tower to Üsküdar district in Istanbul around 1630–1632. The first heavier-than-air (i.e. non-balloon) man-carrying aircraft that were based on published scientific principles were Sir George Cayley 's series of gliders which achieved brief wing-borne hops from around 1849. Thereafter gliders were built by pioneers such as Jean Marie Le Bris , John J. Montgomery , Otto Lilienthal , Percy Pilcher , Octave Chanute and Augustus Moore Herring to develop aviation . Lilienthal
1508-574: The Horten flying wings , the scaled glider version of the Armstrong Whitworth A.W.52 jet powered flying wing. Lifting bodies were also developed using unpowered prototypes. Although the idea can be dated to Vincent Justus Burnelli in 1921, interest was nearly non-existent until it appeared to be a solution for returning spacecraft. Traditional space capsules have little directional control while conventionally winged craft cannot handle
1566-491: The 1930s, and sport gliding has become the main application of gliders. As their performance improved, gliders began to be used to fly cross-country and now regularly fly hundreds or even over a thousand of kilometers in a day, if the weather is suitable. Military gliders were developed by during World War II by a number of countries for landing troops,. A glider – the Colditz Cock – was even built secretly by POWs as
1624-575: The Allied guns could be heard and the war's outcome was fairly certain. The British escape officer decided that the glider should be available for use in case the SS ordered the massacre of the prisoners as a way to get a message out to approaching American troops. The glider was approaching completion when the American Army liberated the prisoners on 16 April 1945. Assigned to the task force that liberated
1682-532: The BBC TV series Colditz depicts the decision to build a glider as an escape attempt. It is also depicted in the final escape from Colditz Castle in the fictional story depicted in the 2002 video game Prisoner of War . The fate of the glider is not known, but the castle was in the zone controlled by the Soviets, who did not co-operate with its reclamation. However, Goldfinch had kept his drawings, which enabled
1740-542: The Chapel attic and was flown from Colditz for a Channel 4 documentary and launched it (unmanned) from the same roof as had been planned for the original. The radio-controlled replica made it safely across the river and landed in a meadow 180 metres below. The documentary aired in North America on PBS under the title "Escape from Nazi Alcatraz" on 14 May 2014. The glider built for this 2012 documentary now forms part of
1798-544: The FAI based on a maximum weight. They are light enough to be transported easily, and can be flown without licensing in some countries. Ultralight gliders have performance similar to hang gliders , but offer some additional crash safety as the pilot can be strapped in an upright seat within a deformable structure. Landing is usually on one or two wheels which distinguishes these craft from hang gliders. Several commercial ultralight gliders have come and gone, but most current development
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1856-478: The Germans were accustomed to looking down for tunnels, not up for secret workshops, the officers felt quite safe from detection. Nevertheless, they placed many lookouts and created an electric alarm system to warn the builders of approaching guards. Over thirty ribs had to be constructed (around a third being structural compression ribs), predominantly formed from bed slats, but also from every other piece of wood
1914-810: The Korean War, transport aircraft had also become larger and more efficient so that even light tanks could be dropped by parachute, causing gliders to fall out of favor. Even after the development of powered aircraft, gliders have been built for research, where the lack of powerplant reduces complexity and construction costs and speeds development, particularly where new and poorly understood aerodynamic ideas are being tested that might require significant airframe changes. Examples have included delta wings, flying wings, lifting bodies and other unconventional lifting surfaces where existing theories were not sufficiently developed to estimate full scale characteristics. Unpowered flying wings built for aerodynamic research include
1972-499: The POWs could surreptitiously obtain. The wing spars were constructed from floor boards. Control wires were made from electrical wiring in unused portions of the castle. A glider expert, Lorne Welch , was asked to review the stress diagrams and calculations made by Goldfinch. The glider constructed was a lightweight, two-seater, high wing, monoplane design. It had a Mooney-style rudder and square elevators . The wingspan , tip to tip,
2030-627: The Swiss authority to examine Marsh but relents when Marsh's evident madness embarrasses him in front of an important visitor. By the time the Germans are willing to consider repatriation, Marsh has done such a convincing job that even the Doctor is uncertain whether or not Marsh is simply pretending to be insane. After Marsh has been successfully repatriated to the UK, Colonel Preston receives a letter from Marsh's wife, revealing her husband's feigned psychosis has become genuine, and that he has been committed to
2088-420: The bitter end. Marsh does a very thorough job: his bizarre, disruptive behaviour continually annoys the other allied officers, who are mostly unaware of the scheme. However, the Germans are not convinced, and Ulmann asks a Corporal to observe Marsh closely. The Corporal has a brother who is insane, so Ulmann believes he is a better judge of Marsh's condition than any doctor. The Kommandant initially refuses to allow
2146-570: The bomb accurately to the target. Glide bombs were developed in Germany from as early as 1915. In World War II they were most successful as anti-shipping weapons. Some air forces today are equipped with gliding devices that can remotely attack airbases with a cluster bomb warhead. Colditz (1972 TV series) Colditz is a British television drama series co-produced by the BBC and Universal Studios and screened between 1972 and 1974. The series deals with Allied prisoners of war imprisoned at
2204-465: The castle, war correspondent Lee Carson entered Colditz on 15 April 1945 and took the only photograph of the glider completed in the attic. Although the Colditz Cock never flew in real life, the concept was fictionalized, depicting a successful flight and escape, in the 1971 TV film The Birdmen starring Doug McClure , Chuck Connors , René Auberjonois and Richard Basehart . One episode of
2262-529: The energies of the prisoners from descending into boredom and tedium. The idea for the glider came from Lieutenant Tony Rolt . Rolt, who was not even an airman, had noticed the chapel roof line was completely obscured from the German guards' view. He realised that the roof would make a perfect launching point from which the glider could fly across the River Mulde , which was about 60 metres below. The team
2320-402: The engine for the entire flight. Some flexible wing powered aircraft, Ultralight trikes , have a wheeled undercarriage, and so are not hang gliders. A paraglider is a free-flying, foot-launched aircraft. The pilot sits in a harness suspended below a fabric wing. Unlike a hang glider whose wings have frames, the form of a paraglider wing is formed by the pressure of air entering vents or cells in
2378-492: The episode, Tweedledum, is a fictionalised account of his means of escape retold as tragedy. Michael Bryant was nominated for a Bafta for his performance in this episode. Many of the events depicted in the series are based on fact. Exceptions for dramatic purposes include the mentions of the Kommandant's son, Colonel Preston's wife and mother, and the completely fictional Major Mohn, who appears in series two. While there
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2436-492: The front of the wing. This is known as a ram-air wing (similar to the smaller parachute design). The paraglider's light and simple design allows them to be packed and carried in large backpacks, and make them one of the simplest and economical modes of flight. Competition level wings can achieve glide ratios up to 1:10 and fly around speeds of 45 km/h (28 mph). Like sailplanes and hang gliders, paragliders use rising air (thermals or ridge lift) to gain height. This process
2494-451: The ground with a transmitter . These can remain airborne for extended periods by using the lift produced by slopes and thermals . These can be winched into wind by a line attached to a hook under the fuselage with a ring, so that the line will drop when the model is overhead. Other methods of launching include towing aloft using a model powered aircraft, catapult-launching using an elastic bungee cord and hand-launching. When hand-launching
2552-474: The majority now have composite materials using glass, carbon fibre and aramid fibers. To minimise drag , these types have a fuselage and long narrow wings, i.e. a high aspect ratio . In the beginning, there were huge differences in the appearance of early-sailplanes. As technology and materials developed, the aspiration for the perfect balance between lift/drag, climbing ratio and gliding speed, made engineers from various producers create similar designs across
2610-491: The majority now land on wheels, often retractable. Some gliders, known as motor gliders , are designed for unpowered flight, but can deploy piston , rotary , jet or electric engines . Gliders are classified by the FAI for competitions into glider competition classes mainly on the basis of span and flaps. A class of ultralight sailplanes, including some known as microlift gliders and some as 'airchairs', has been defined by
2668-406: The newer "discus" style of wing-tip hand-launching has largely supplanted the earlier "javelin" type of launch. A glide bomb is a bomb with aerodynamic surfaces to allow a gliding flightpath rather than a ballistic one. This allows the bomber aircraft to stand off from the target and launch the bomb from a safe distance. Most types have a remote control system which enables the aircraft to direct
2726-430: The project. The 60 ft long runway was to be constructed from tables and the glider was to be launched using a pulley system based on a falling metal bathtub full of concrete , using a gravity -assisted acceleration to 30 mph (50 km/h). The officers who took part in the project built a false wall to hide the secret space in the attic where they slowly built the glider from stolen pieces of wood. Since
2784-495: The series was Major Pat Reid , the real British Escape Officer at Colditz. One of the locations used in filming was Stirling Castle . Wing Commander Marsh ( Michael Bryant ), an assistant to the British Medical Officer, decides to use his extensive knowledge of mental illness for an escape. He proposes to "go insane" and be repatriated. Colonel Preston agrees to let him, so long as he follows through with it to
2842-537: The stresses of re-entry, whereas a lifting body combines the benefits of both. The lifting bodies use the fuselage itself to generate lift without employing the usual thin and flat wing so as to minimize the drag and structure of a wing for very high supersonic or hypersonic flight as might be experienced during the re-entry of a spacecraft . Examples of type are the Northrop HL-10 and Martin-Marietta X-24 . The NASA Paresev Rogallo flexible wing glider
2900-521: The supposedly escape-proof Colditz Castle when designated Oflag IV-C during World War II , and their many attempts to escape captivity, as well as the relationships formed between the various nationalities and their German captors. Colditz was created by Brian Degas working with the producer Gerard Glaister , who went on to devise another successful BBC series dealing with the Second World War, Secret Army . Technical consultant for
2958-403: The tow near the target, they landed as close to the target as possible. Advantages over paratroopers were that heavy equipment could be landed and that the troops were quickly assembled rather than being dispersed over a drop zone. The gliders were treated as disposable leading to construction from common and inexpensive materials such as wood, though a few were retrieved and re-used. By the time of
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#17327797673843016-451: The world. Both single-seat and two-seat gliders are available. Initially training was done by short 'hops' in primary gliders which are very basic aircraft with no cockpit and minimal instruments. Since shortly after World War II training has always been done in two-seat dual control gliders, but high performance two-seaters are also used to share the workload and the enjoyment of long flights. Originally skids were used for landing, but
3074-408: Was 32 ft (9.75 m), and it was 19 ft 9 in (6 m) from nose to tail. Prison sleeping bags of blue and white checked cotton were used to skin the glider, and German ration millet was boiled and used as a form of dope to seal the cloth pores . The completed glider weighed 240 lb (109 kg). The take-off was scheduled for the spring of 1945 during an air raid blackout but by then
3132-477: Was built by Southdown Aviation Ltd at Lasham Airfield . The glider was test flown successfully in 2000 by John Lee on its first attempt at RAF Odiham with Best, Goldfinch and about a dozen of the veterans who had worked on the original more than 55 years earlier proudly looking on. Jack Best died later that year. The replica is now housed on loan at the Gliding Heritage Centre . The programme
3190-637: Was built to investigate alternative methods of recovering spacecraft. Although this application was abandoned, publicity inspired hobbyists to adapt the flexible wing airfoil for modern hang gliders. Rocket-powered aircraft consume their fuel quickly and so most must land unpowered unless there is another power source. The first rocket plane was the Lippisch Ente , and later examples include the Messerschmitt Me 163 rocket-powered interceptor. The American series of research aircraft starting with
3248-472: Was headed by Bill Goldfinch and Jack Best. Goldfinch and Best were aided by their discovery in the prison library of Aircraft Design , a two-volume work by C.H. Latimer-Needham which explained the necessary physics and engineering and included a detailed diagram of a wing section. The glider was assembled by Goldfinch and Best and 12 assistants known as "apostles", in the lower attic above the chapel. Future RAF Air commodore Geoffrey D. Stephenson assisted in
3306-507: Was shown in 2000 by Channel 4 in the UK as part of a 3-part documentary series called "Escape from Colditz". The Channel 4 material was edited to 60 minutes and shown in the US in 2001 as "Nazi Prison Escape" on the Nova television series . In March 2012, a radio-controlled, full-sized replica glider was built by Tony Hoskins' UK based glider maintenance/repair company South East Aircraft Services in
3364-423: Was the first to make repeated successful flights (eventually totaling over 2,000) and was the first to use rising air to prolong his flight. Using a Montgomery tandem-wing glider, Daniel Maloney was the first to demonstrate high-altitude controlled flight using a balloon-launched glider launched from 4,000 feet in 1905. The Wright Brothers developed a series of three manned gliders after preliminary tests with
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