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  #41  
Old 06-28-2012, 09:39 AM
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@ Jan & Leif:Thanks for finding the retroplane site. A true treasure trove!
@ Wad Cutter: So true. I like the Tiger Moth and all those civilian vintage sportsplanes, but vintage sailplanes have a unique aesthetic quality that appeals to people who normally can´t find anything attractive about old pieces of machinery.
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  #42  
Old 06-29-2012, 03:21 AM
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Historical photos of all Polish gliders 1945-today

Here's a wonderful site I just found with period & modern photos of all Polish gliders produced after 1945 and to this day. Many of the period photos are amateur pictures, making history come alive.

Index of the gallery (+ Google translated version)

If I managed to count them roughly correct, the gallery contains more than 100 polish glider types and variants produced and used in Poland since 1945. Amazing, isn't it? In addtion some 40 foreign types (including well-known German classic historical types) used in Poland during this period. For each type, there are sometimes more than a dozen photos.

All of the post-1945 types modeled by GPM and mentioned in this tread are there. Just to inidicate the charm of photos you can expect, here's one of the Sroka (which model just arrived in my mailbox from Slawomir Wojcek's Modellservice):



And one of the German Weihe (as an example of non-Polish gliders):

Attached Thumbnails
Sailplanes available?-sroka_sp1725_mikolajczyk_13.jpg   Sailplanes available?-weihe_sp029_witkowski_zar_1949_01.jpg  
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  #43  
Old 06-30-2012, 03:58 AM
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Polish glider movies - pre-war, post-war & and one modern

Martin, Waddie - I'm so glad you appreciate the beauty of gliders. I'd like to show you a couple of Polish films illustrating this. At the end you will find a contemporary film with the Polish master sailplane pilot Sebastian Kawa, which truly embodies the feelings you express.

However, my fascination is equally or more with the age when gliding only could take place by lots and lots of enthusiasts cooperating, building and repairing most of the winter, lugging heavy gliders up steep mountain slopes most of the summer, to be rewarded with a few minutes in the air at intervals.

This could be illustrated with film clips from the U.S. Elmira, from Great Britain, and even from Sweden (Ålleberg, not too far from where I live). But since so much of papermodeling has its roots in Poland, and so many paper models of sailplanes depict Polish types, I set down to search for films showing the Polish gliding scene, preferably pre-war.



This is the best clip I found, from an historical point of view. Watching it, you will get a superb impression of how massive the gliding movement was in the thirties in a country like Poland. Suddenly, the more than 80 types and variants of Polish gliders gets into perspective.

Note particularly the mechanized trolley used for freighting the gliders back to the top of the mountain after a landing in the valley below. What impresses me most is the uphill landings by those pilots who managed to keep aloft in the mountain lift areas.

Note also the double lines of people tugging the rubber ropes used to launch the gliders, and the seemingly fantastic lift immediately after take off. Seems like those gliders are in an invisible lift. I never realized slope soaring could induce that much lift!

The uploader states that the clip contains "some scenes from the movie 'First Start' and authentic recordings of […] Mr Adam Dziurzyńskim." However, there is another clip from a Polish glider film purporting to be from the same dramatized movie, and with the same text accompanying it:



The footage of Adam Dziurzynskim (unknown to me) seems to be in this clip. But the two clips in my view do not seem to be from the same era. Perhaps someone with a better first-hand knowledge of the Polish gliding scene could date these film clips better, or correct me in my suspicion that they may not even be from the same film.

Now, if you feel that watching this wasn't much fun, you should go directly to the last, colored, clip in this post. But since I've found some more vintage Polish clips of historical gliders, I'll include them. Here's clip No. 3 in my little collection:



This one is definitely prewar, since it is dated 1936. The glider section is right at the beginning, where a "Komar" glider is shown, designed by Antoni Kocjan. In the rest of the clip you get a fine row of Polish light aircraft types from the 1930s. The uploader lists the following (several or all of them available as paper models, I seem to remember):
• at 0:42 - RWD-6
• at 1:16 - RWD-8
• at 3:16 - RWD-6
• at 6:25 - RWD-13

The fourth clip is called "Polish Wings", and start with a number of historic stills of Polish aircraft. About one minute into this exposé, we get a number of gliders, many of them experimental and tailless. At ca 2:20 starts a film sequence called "Old time soaring in Poland".



The Mucha standard glider shown would place this film as an official journal movie from the late 1950s or early 60s, so the times are not that old. Still, placing a film camera on the wings of a glider in those days is not a mean feat!

Following up on the clearly postwar Polish gliding movies, this clip contains a minute of a Glider Championship in Poland, uncertain which year, but definitely postwar:



The rest of this clip is about a test of a U.S. VTOL craft, of less interest here.

By now yor are probably very tired of looking at grainy olf black-and-white film clips, however interesting they may be from an historical point of view. So let's turn to this nugget:



This is an absolute beauty - a professionally produced Polish TV-film, about gorgeous soaring over the thermals created by the sun shining on steep mountain slopes, like in the Alps or the South American Andes. Do not forget to click on the C.C. button - this beauty is even texted! Since it is high-quality, it is well worth clicking on the YouTube logo in the clip here, to go to the original site and watch it enlarged.

I'll leave you to explore the text provided at the original website - there's an English translation at the bottom.

My point with these clips, is that I firmly believe the people lugging their gliders up steep mountain slopes in the 1930s had a dream which may not have been possible to realize fully until today.

But I also believe that they realized enough of it to last them in their own lifetime.

What, in our dreams, is it that we can't fully realize? Only later generations will be able to say.

Leif
Attached Thumbnails
Sailplanes available?-polish-glider-films-1s.jpg   Sailplanes available?-polish-glider-films-2s.jpg   Sailplanes available?-polish-glider-films-3s.jpg   Sailplanes available?-polish-glider-films-4s.jpg   Sailplanes available?-polish-glider-films-5s.jpg  

Sailplanes available?-polish-glider-films-6s.jpg  
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  #44  
Old 07-01-2012, 01:38 AM
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Leif Ohlsson Leif Ohlsson is offline
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Three marvellous archives of vintage glider magazines & books

As it happens I managed to put an "at least after" date on the first film clip in the previous post, one of the two from the film "First start". A bit into the film (2:50), when the young hero has managed his first flight on a "Salamander" type of trainer, he is very quickly strapped into a more advanced trainer with a closed canopy and the registration SP-999.



A quick search for "Polish glider SP-999" rendered the following pdf-file: VGC News No. 102 Spring 2001, from which I quote (p.3):

Quote:


[p. 3:] Tony Morris says that the designation "IS" in "IS-4 Jasztrab" stands for Gliding Institute which was the design organisation later superseded by the better known SZD, both based at Bielsko-Biala where virtually all glider prototypes were built. The prototype IS-4, SP-999 (c/n 065) first flew on 21 December 1949 followed by the second prototype SP-I00I (c/n 067) on 5th April 1950. The first ten production gliders were built at Bielsko in 1952 and then the further batch of 25 ill 1954 were the first machines built at the Krosno works (c/ns 001-025).
So we learn that the film must certainly have been at least after 1949, and that it probably is from the Polish gliding centre Bielsko-Biala. The rather characteristic tower at the top of the ridge can be seen in several of the other clips, too.

Three vintage archives

The find of this full issue of the Vintage Glider Club News led to a new search to see if other issues of it were available. And - lo and behold! - it turns out they really are, to say the very least. In fact, thanks to the mammoth task undertaken by Peter Redshaw, almost all UK gliding and soaring magazines from 1930 to date have been scanned into searchable pdf-files!!! Here's a link you will not want to lose:

Old UK Gliding Magazines - content:

Sailplane and Glider from 1930 to 1955 (300, all loaded)
Gliding from 1950 to 1955 (22, all loaded)
Sailplane and Gliding from 1955 to 2000 (274, 104 loaded so far)
Soaring Pilot from 1973 to 1974 (4, all loaded)
VGC [Vintage Glider Club] News from 1973 to 2003 (108, all loaded)

In addition, the three British gliding & soaring clubs & associations involved have started a similar project to scan and make available all out-of-print UK gliding books. Here's the link

Wally Kahn & BGA UK eBook Collection

That work, by the looks of it, has only started. Even so, the site is a goldmine. Imagine, vintage books on gliding, to be downloaded and viewed on-screen!

What is missing so far is a search engine like the one at the Globalflight Archive. The people behind the gliding magazine site would very much like to get a tip on how to accomplish this.

On the other side of the Atlantic, the Soaring Society of America (SSA) has its own Archive for Soaring magazine, starting 1937 and ending at 2010 so far. They do have a dedicated search engine, which would have been a great help - if it wasn't restricted to members only. But you can still expect a general Google search to turn up results from this archive. And you can browse it manually, year by year, issue by issue, just like its British counterpart.
Attached Thumbnails
Sailplanes available?-vgc-news-1022-2001.jpg   Sailplanes available?-sp-999.jpg  

Last edited by Leif Ohlsson; 07-01-2012 at 01:53 AM.
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  #45  
Old 07-01-2012, 10:01 AM
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Wow Leif those are some cool clips! I realy like the Wampir II tailless glider...would love a big RC model of that one....or a smaller paper one!.....Rich

Sailplanes available?-glider.jpg Sailplanes available?-wampir_3v.jpg
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  #46  
Old 07-01-2012, 11:40 AM
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Johnflys2 Johnflys2 is offline
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sailplanes

Leif, thanks so much for posting the videos. When I was younger I flew sailplanes and now I only fly in Flight Sim. Thanks to Wad Cutter for posting the Cub video in FSX, I got back into simulation. I love to fly the vintage birds and I have collected a few. This morning I was flying a Minimoa from Harris Hill and attach a few screen shots. I also like to fly at the Wasserkuppe using my SG-38 and the Weihe.
And yes, I am a paper cutter also. :-) John
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Sailplanes available?-breaking-ground.jpg   Sailplanes available?-cockpit-view.jpg  
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  #47  
Old 07-02-2012, 05:23 AM
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Leif Ohlsson Leif Ohlsson is offline
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Context is everything…

Rich & John, thanks for dropping by and enjoying these old clips. Particular thanks to John for showing the Minimoa panel, and sending it to me separately. This is just what I needed for future refining one of the available sailplane paper models I'm fiddling with. Hope to be able to show you the result later on.

Meanwhile, here's a link John supplied for his FS vintage gliders. I'm getting quite jealous of his being able to time-travel at will and fly from the Wasserkuppe in the 1930s!

For those of you who might be collecting esoteric stuff like these old flim clips, here's the remaining clip from the Polish film Perwsyzy Start (First start):



It is in fact the second in order of the three clips available from the film. In it, we get a lot of footage of the two-seater SZD-9 Bocian (Storch), which is also available as a paper model (GPM nr 197):

Sailplanes available?-szd-9-bocian-gpm-197.jpg

Now, if you allow me to delve one installment longer on this film, it is really quite interesting, as an example of how the historical context shapes the plot of films. Perwsyzy Start (First start) - was made in 1950, and had its premiere in January 1951. This is just a couple of years after the coup-like take-over by the communist party. Implementing the social agenda of the party is still a fragile process, and presumably they had a hard time convincing the population of its value. So this is a propaganda film, of course, promoting the values of collective social responsibility,

The plot underlines this in rather simplistic strokes. The young man we have alread identified as the main character, is in fact:

Quote:
…a clever country boy, Tom, who attends the gliding course "Service to Poland." However, he ignores the teachings given and does not want to adapt to the collective, and is thus sent home.



A dramatic change occurs when a glider lands in the field next to his house. The pilot has been taken ill. A dramatic storm rising threatens to destroy the glider, which turns out to be impossible to secure. Instead, Tom decides to start [how, one wonders - I would have liked to see this scene], and manages to fly the glider to safety at the airport. By decree from the commander he then immediately is restated to a higher level." (Sources: filmpolski.pl, pl.wikipedia, filmweb.pl, all Google-translated.)
If your are the least bit interested, here's a good, modern, critical article: "We help you realize the 6-year plan" (Polish orig. - Google transl.), about the kind of films made in this era. Interestingly enough, the film is described as a "hit" by this source.

Back to gliders. Notice the name "Junak" painted on the nose of the glider we already have identified as Jastrzab (Hawk) SP-999? Junak means "swashbuckler", if Google can be trusted. This name must have been painted on to the glider for the film (congenial to the character of the hero?, one wonders), since it is not there in other photos of this prototype Jastrzab:



There is no paper model of the Jastrzab, to my knowledge, which is a pity since it looks very attractive, much like a Schleicher K8a with gull wings and a more spacious cockpit & canopy (which would be difficult to model in a paper model, though). The prestanda, however, were not so good - pilots called it "the flying axe". On its good side, it was designed with such strength that it was indeed impossible for any pilot to reach a speed above max. permitted. You simply could not get over 400 mph, and it was designed to stand for 450 mph. Incredible... (Source, Google-transl.)

So, back to "Junak", where else have we, as paper modelers, come across that name? Here it is:

Sailplanes available?-junak-3-wak.jpg

The Junkak trainer (WAK model 9/2006; Kartonbau buildthread here) - which incidentally often was used for glider towing - was made in 1952, one year after the "hit" film "First start" had its premiere. Did the name painted on the nose of the glider in this film actually influence the manufacturers of the trainer Junak? Just a thought, but an interesting one, wouldn't you say?
Attached Thumbnails
Sailplanes available?-first-step-2.jpg   Sailplanes available?-sp-999-jastrzab-junak-publ-photo-first-start.jpg   Sailplanes available?-sp-999-jastrzab-prototype-1952.jpg   Sailplanes available?-sp-999-jastrzab-prototype.jpg  

Last edited by Leif Ohlsson; 07-02-2012 at 06:18 AM.
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  #48  
Old 07-02-2012, 08:04 AM
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vintage gliders

Leif, you caught on quick............... yes, I'm using the simulator as an instrument for time travel. I knew I would never make it to the Wasserkuppe especially in the '30's but now I can and also visit many other places
My favorite flight from the Wasserkuppe is a bungie launch with the SG-38 on the west slope. I can glide down and pick up lift over a small village and cork-screw my way back up to a couple thousand feet over the field elevation and cruise around a bit. Then set up a very precise pattern because the SG-38 ls lacking spoilers. Sometimes I have to make "S" turns or side slip to bleed off excess altitude, then land.
Again I attached a few screen shots, one is from the by standers view point and the other is the pilots view. John
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Sailplanes available?-sg-38-bungee.jpg   Sailplanes available?-sg-38-pilot-view.jpg  
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  #49  
Old 07-03-2012, 02:24 AM
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Leif Ohlsson Leif Ohlsson is offline
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From Berlin to Kiel 1936

John, thanks for inviting us to your 1930s refuge! I'll take your lead, and remain in that decade for a while.

Opening any single issue of the vintage sailplane magazines available from the marvellous archives related in an earlier post, you can hardly fail to learn something extremely interesting that you absolutely did not know before. Here's an example:

Sailplanes available?-ill-sailplane-vol-7-no.-12-dec-1936-p-253.jpg Sailplanes available?-ill-sailplane-vol-7-no.-12-dec-1936-p-254.jpg Sailplanes available?-ill-sailplane-vol-7-no.-12-dec-1936-p-255.jpg Sailplanes available?-ill-sailplane-vol-7-no.-12-dec-1936-p-256.jpg

These are pp. 253-56 of "The Sailplane" vol 7 no 12 1936, downloaded from the archive site Old UK Gliding Magazines. Below I have attached the original pdf-files of the four pages shown above as illustrations.

On these four pages you get a first hand account of the spectacular and unprecedented flight undertaken by Hungarian sailplane designer Lajos (Ludwig in the nazi-German context) Rotter, at the Olympic games 1936 in Germany. Note the olympic rings painted on to the Nemere in this photo:



There is also a photo, albeit of lower quality, but with a reasonable likeness of Rotter at the time of the flight (source):



The flight was undertaken in his own design, the Nemere (Hungarian name for a certain kind of wind coming from the Alps) which hadn't even been properly test-flown at the time. From a paper-modeling point of view, the method used for covering the nose section is worth noting, isn't it - for once the petal method might actually be scale-like! If for nothing else, this would be an excellent reason to design a paper model of this extraordinary sailplane...

Here's two more photos which show the petal construction of the nose to advantage:



The Nemere strikes me as very similar to the German Reiher, which has been mentioned several times in this thread already. The wingspan is the same, 20m, it has the option to lower its ailerons to change the wing profile for higher lift in thermals, the minimum sink is 0.63 m/s and the L/D 26, which makes it equal to the well-known and popular Schleicher K8a (a much later, and smaller, sailplane, of conventional steel tube & fabric design; the Nemere was all wood & fabric).

The British editors of the article notes the excellent visibility through the large canopy, and the designer himself recounts in two articles on pp. 253-256 the 300 km flight from Berlin to Kiel.



In a second article, Rotter explains the design philosophy of the Nemere. This article includes an early and good three-view drawing. Writes Rotter himself:

Quote:
The basis of the design was the idea that the speed and gliding performance of sailplanes ought to be increased, and the range of speed and of sinking speed should be extended by making the ailerons adjustable during flight, both for flying in weak thermic currents and for fast flight with good gliding angle. Also the cage [sic! - note the terminology of the time!] for the pilot should be specially roomy and comfortable, to keep him in good condition during a long and difficult flight and to allow him enough room to handle maps and navigational apparatus. To comply with these demands the span and weight of the machine had to be increased; the wing loading also had to be raised to a value in conformity with modern airplane types.



The wing sections were designed by me; they could not be investigated in a wing tunnel nor were any model tests available for the machine as a whole.
[…]
The sailplane was first flown on the evening of July 25th, 1936, and on July 27th, before it had been soared even once, was packed up fort transport to Berlin.
And less than two weeks later, on August 9th, 1936 Rotter undertook his epic flight to Kiel! It was the longest glider flight to a pre-declared goal till that day, and the longest glider flight of any kind undertaken during 1936.

It is a very dramatic tale, and I for one was spellbound. Please download and read these pages (the pdf-files are much higher quality, and quite readable) if you are the least fascinated by the idea of soaring, and the challenges involved in getting from one point to a stated goal several hundrad kilometers away, relying only on thermic upwinds - while having neither a GPS, nor a communication radio aboard…

You may note that Rotter, during this flight, applied what much later got to be known as the "dolphin" flying technique, i.e. reducing his speed while in lift areas, and increase it while in non-lift or sink areas between thermals. But no spiralling, unless absolutely necessary to accumulate height for an anticipated longish spell of no lift ahead. Analyses show that during this flight he managed a quota of time spent in spiralling in relation to flying on course, which wasn't to be surpassed by anyone until well after the war!

Two years later Rotter was elected to be part of the jury which was to select the sailplane to be used at the 1940 Olympics (which never took place). Contestants were, among others, the Polish Orlik (mentioned earlier in this thread) and several German sailplanes. After strong political pressure, the contest was won by the German DFS Meise, which thereafter was named the DFS Olympia.

Rotter remained a leading figure within the Hungarian gliding community, but the Nemere was sadly mistreated. No other exemplar was built, and the original never got to be flown again under good conditions. Instead it was restricted to bungee-cord launches from hills outside Budapest, for which it was unsuitable due to its relatively high weight. Here's a film clip of what it looked like (source):



In 1937 the Nemere chrashed after one such start. During the rebuild it was retrofitted with airbrakes "of the Göttingen type". In the final stages of the war it was damaged, but rebuilt again afterwards - only to be ultimately destroyed again in 1948 without any further explanations given. My guess - based on the clothing of people involved - is that the film clip is from these few years after the war.
Attached Thumbnails
Sailplanes available?-nemere-rotter-no-canopy.jpg   Sailplanes available?-nemere-2-photos-1.jpg   Sailplanes available?-rotter-1936-flight-map.jpg   Sailplanes available?-nemere-dwg.jpg   Sailplanes available?-nemere.jpg  

Attached Files
File Type: pdf The Sailplane Vol 7 No. 12 Dec 1936 p 253.pdf (128.8 KB, 31 views)
File Type: pdf The Sailplane Vol 7 No. 12 Dec 1936 p 254.pdf (157.2 KB, 7 views)
File Type: pdf The Sailplane Vol 7 No. 12 Dec 1936 p 255.pdf (175.6 KB, 7 views)
File Type: pdf The Sailplane Vol 7 No. 12 Dec 1936 p 256.pdf (128.7 KB, 9 views)

Last edited by Leif Ohlsson; 07-03-2012 at 03:20 AM.
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  #50  
Old 07-03-2012, 05:50 AM
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Johnflys2 Johnflys2 is offline
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Leif, you have posted some very interesting material, please keep it coming.
Does the name Cloyd Artman ring a bell? He was an early American glider pioneer who sometimes used a most unusual launch method.


Oroville hometown of pioneering glider pilot Cloyd Artman
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Sailplanes available?-cloyd-artman.jpg  
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