KRONFELD ON GLIDING AND SOARING.pdf - Lakes Gliding Club

THE FUTURE OF SOARING FLIGHT
THE answer to this question is as uncertain as are
the answers to all questions concerning the future.
Yet if we cannot predict in detail the exact course of
the development of soaring flight, we know, nevertheless,
that its future possibilities are so manifold, while its problems
extend in so many directions that it will be long before
we can even begin to solve them.
Soaring flight depends upon its disciples, who must
provide the new material and new power. If we desire
to know what we must demand from them, the question
arises : what do we expect to gain by gliding and soaring ?
So far as gliding is concerned the answer is simple : we
want to attract as many people to this form of flying as
possible.
By gliding we shall provide the strength that lies in
numbers. The devotees of gliding should include the
whole of a nation, and more especially its younger generation;
we ought to be able to weave a net of enthusiasm for flying
sport over a whole country. We have already made such
progress in this direction that innumerable groups and
clubs are active in every country. That is not enough, for
every small town and village should have its own training
centre or its own gliding club. The expense is so slight ;
a mountain or hill, with a shed on it, suffices.
The shed contains one, two, three or more pupils'
machines, and perhaps funds will suffice to build a hut
with simple sleeping accommodation where young folk could
camp out in simple fashion. Intelligent organization
would soon find ways to cater for their needs, so that
soaring mountains would soon become as common as skiing
mountains, perhaps even as golf links. Every young fellow
would cherish ambitions to join the ranks and learn to
pilot a glider.
For the attainment of this object active and continuous
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