By Gates L. Scott

It’s silent. It’s scenic. It’s unlike any flying you’ve ever done.

Soaring effortlessly, without engine noise, is the most peaceful form of flying in the sky. All of us seek a challenge and excitement when flying our various aircraft, however early pioneers first dreamed of flight in its truest form. To fly as the hawk or eagle has inspired mankind’s dream of flight. The jets and sophisticated aircraft that we take for granted use technology that dates back to the beginnings of our aviation history when skilled inventors of yesteryear made the first glides down hills in wood and fabric covered crafts of every description. Soaring is the truest aviation discipline. It is an art form that spawned all powered aircraft. It is difficult for some to understand the difference between gliding and soaring. However, it is the evolution of the discipline that dictates that difference. The first attempt at flight was gliding. What we see today utilizing atmospheric resources is soaring. Now, modern sailplanes make soaring flight possible, and with them humans can fly higher, faster and farther than the greatest of birds, using only an invisible force of nature to stay aloft.

As we have seen, history tends to move from the simple to the more complex. With rudimentary concepts of aerodynamics, very few raw materials, and no available engines, early aviators were content with using very crude gliders that were reliant on a slope and gravity to propel their dream. Some of the first designs or thoughts of this type of flight were conceived by visionaries the likes of Leonardo da Vinci who drew his first impressions as far back as 1490. By the early 1900’s, the famed Wright Brothers had been experimenting with glider flight and developed a series of ships to learn flight control and become pilots specifically by glidingwhereas all other experimenters rushed to add power without refining flight control. The developments made in aviation had been all about developing more and more advanced gliders and perfecting the ability to control them in flight. With the Wright’s advancements, powered flight became increasingly dominant from the first sustained, controlled, powered flight in 1903.

By 1906, the sport of gliding was progressing very quickly. The attraction and fascination of flight had grabbed a hold of numerous enthusiasts and inventors. In 1911, Orville Wright had set a world duration record of flying his motorless craft for 9:45 minutes, setting the bar high for those to follow. Today, flight duration and records are consistently being broken and added to reward those who fly in the truest form. By the 1920s, the sport of soaring was coming into its own. Glider design was spurred on by developments in Germany and the United States when the Treaty of Versailles banned powered aircraft during World War I. And new forms of lift were discovered. Using previously unknown, atmospheric resources, it was now possible to gain more altitude and travel greater distances.