1OO YEARS OF SAILPLANE DESIGN AND BEYOND

Abstract

The first successful attempts initiating mankind's history of flight were flights with airplanes without engines. These flights were performed by Otto Lilienthal in the last decade of the 19th century in Germany and by the Wright brothers in the first years of the past century in the USA. With the installation of an engine the Wright brothers were the forerunners of the development of modern aviation. For some time the interest in flying unpowered airplanes, later called gliders or sailplanes, faded away. In the twenties a remarkable rebirth of sailplanes occurred, leading to sailplanes now capable of covering distances of up to 3000 km with average speeds of around 200 km/hr using as single source of propulsion the energy inherent in the atmosphere. The present paper describes important milestones in the use of natural energy resources in the strategy of flying and in the technical development of sailplanes. In addition, ideas are discussed with respect to the further improvement of sailplane performance in the coming century.