VGC News/Newsletters - Lakes Gliding Club

As the machine mounts in the air one sees the ground
sinking beneath. He imagines he is lOO feet in the air, and
begins to wonder if he will ever come down ....
The thought no sooner comes when the machine suddenly
begins to descend with lightning speed. The wind rushes in the
face of the operator like a hurricane and hums through the
network of fine wire that forms part of the framework with a
high, shrill note ....
Just as one stretches his legs out expecting to plant his feet
on something solid, the wind suddenly lifts the machine again
toward the sky. As it mounts upward one's confidence returns.
It is not so dangerous after all, just as Mr. Chanute and Mr.
Herring and Mr. Avery said ...."
rn the fall of 1897, Chanute addressed fellow members of
the Western Society of Engineers in Chicago. He explained
that his aeronautic experiments were being conducted at his
own expense, in the hope of gaining scientific knowledge and
without any expectation of personal profit. It seemed unlikely
that a commercial machine would be developed soon, he surmised,
predicting that overcoming the obstacles of flight
would actually involve a process of evolution: one experimenter
venturing into the labyrinth, the next penetrating
farther and so on, until the very center was reached and the
puzzle solved.
Chanute cOlTesponded with many would-be pilots and
flying machine designers in the ensuing years, all of whom
sought his advice. In May, 1900, a letter arrived from two
young bicycle makers in Dayton, OH, both of whom confessed
,to being "afflicted with the belief that flight is possible
to man.
"In appearance," Wilbur Wright explained, the gliding
machine the brothers had created "is very similar to the 'doubledeck'
machine with which the experiments of yourself and
Mr. Hen-ing were conducted in 1896-97." Three years later,
the Wrights succeeded in making the first controlled powered
flight. Their letter marked the beginning of a friendship that
continued until Chanute's death in 1911. In fact, he became
their closest friend and most ardent. supporter.
"The double-deck machine," Wilbur Wright said, "represented
a very great structural advance, as it was the first in
which the principles on the modern truss bridge were fully
applied to flying machine construction."
"The impact of the Chanute-Herring design on other aircraft
builders is apparent," wrote Dr. Tom D Crouch, Senior
Curator at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington,
D.e. "In the V.S., the Wrig,hts and virtuaUy everyone else
lISed the braced biplane structure as dheir starting point. The
little biplane glider clear,ly influenced thinking in Europe, as
well. Chanute's lectures 'to the Aeroclub de France in 1903 reignited
French interest in heavier than air flight. Copies of
Chanute-Herring gl!iders were among the first aircraft flown
by Ferdinand Ferber, Gabriel Voisin and other French pioneers.
"Chanute's· rigid, lightweight structure became the
model for all externally braced biplanes" PrCrouch wrote. "It
was nothing less tilan the first modem C1ircraft structure".
Sillline Short is an avmtlOll historian and Chair of the
National Landmark Committee of the National Soaring
Museum. She has wril/ell more thart olle hundred articles on
the history ofmotorless ftight for (lvialion and philatelic magazines
in the United Slates and Europe.
HISTORY OF SOARING IN USA
From the American Soaring Handbook
THE SOARING SOCIETY IS FORMED
rn the spring of 1932 a group of soaring enthusiasts headed by
Warren E. Eaton of Norwich, New York, all of whom had participated
in the J93 I National Contest, gathered together to
organize and sponsor the Third Annual National Soaring
Contest. At this meeting the Soaring Society of America was
born, with Warren Eaton as its first president; A. e. (Gus)
Hailer, vice-president; Arthur L. Lawrence, secretary and treasurer;
and Charles H. Gale, editor of the SSA Bulletin. Others
in the parent group, including Dr. Edward P. Warner, William
R. Enyart, Jacob S. Fassett, 3rd, Franklin K. (Bud) Iszard,
Sherman P. Voorhees, Ralph S. Barnaby, Russell Holderman
and Earl R. Southee, were named directors. While this society
was formed for the specific purpose of organizing the Third
Annual Soaring Contest in 1932, the organization has continued
and has sponsored all national contests since that time. It
soon became recognized as the representative of the gliding
and soaring devotees in the United States, and later was given
the privilege of sanctioning, supervising and docurnenting the
sporting activities of gliding and soaring in the United States,
a privilege granted by the National Aeronautic Association,
the U.S. national aem club representing the Federation Aeronautique
Internationale.
UElder the able leadership of Warren Eaton the Soaring
Society flourished and expanded, though even by 1935 the
membership of .about 230 was pitifully small compared with
figures received from England and Germany.
Ralpb S. Barnaby, vice-president at the time, became the
Society's secondl president. Barnaby was succeeded in 1937
by Richard C. duPont, who had previously served terms both
EIS a vice-president an.d as the Society's treasurer.
Baby Bow/us with its usual rudder markings. Haw/ey
BowhJS designed it using the wing ofthe Grwwti Baby on a
plywood pod and (I steel tube boom bought from a h(ll'dware
store.
Growth of the Soaring Society
Under duPont's leadership the Soaring Society started a
second phase of growth. A monthly magazine Soaring
replaced the earlier mimeo-graphed Gliding and Soaring Bulletin.
A general manager, Lewin B. Barringer, was installed,
and a program of expansion began. In addition to his SSA
activities Richard duPont joined with Hawley Bowlus to form
the Bowlus-duPont Sailplane Company which produced a few
sailplanes find utility gliders. During the tluee years Richard
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