One of my hang gliding friends told me a bit of soaring history --
after WW-I, the German air force was restricted (perhaps forbidden)
from using engines, so they focused on sailplanes. They were hand-
launching them with tow ropes from mountainsides at that point.
At some point they determined that there was lift, rather than just
turbulence, inside cumulus clouds, and when the day came to try it,
three of the pilots were told to pick the smallest cumulus available
in their flight and venture into it. Supposedly (pilots being pilots)
each of them went for the largest cumulus available.
I don't know what they had in the way of instruments -- but there's
very little they could have had in those early days.
None survived, all three aircraft were torn apart.
Just gossip, I will poke around for a source.
--~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
Global Change ("globalchange") newsgroup. Global Change is a public, moderated
venue for discussion of science, technology, economics and policy dimensions of
global environmental change.
Posts will be admitted to the list if and only if any moderator finds the
submission to be constructive and/or interesting, on topic, and not
gratuitously rude.
To post to this group, send email to [email protected]
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/globalchange
-~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
