GLIDING AND SAILFLYING

We wrote about the natural flying creatures in our last two postings. Now our attention turns to one of the many man-made flying objects--gliders. And how to build and operate one.

If you want a complete ground course on operation and construction of gliding and sailflying, then here's a book just for you: HENLEY'S ABC OF GLIDING AND SAILFLYING. It's edited by Victor W. Page, Major-U.S. Air Corps Reserve and has 72 illustrations with drawings and instructions for building a primary training type glider.

Henley Publishing Company published this book in 1930, and way back then for the price of $1.50 (bound in paper) or $2.00 (bound in cloth) you could have read a brief history of gliding and soaring "with motorless airplanes" as well as bird flight and its relation to sailflying. You could also have read about popular German and American gliders and soaring planes as well as how to form a glider club, select terrain for gliding, and train glider pilots. And you could have found more books on the subject from the dust jacket list "New Aviation Books Covering All Phases of Operation or Servicing of Modern Airplanes."

Almost 80 years later, this book sits on Shelf GG5 in the Bullis Room, a bit warped from the 2001 water damage but still offering an entertaining and informative look-through, even for those of us who prefer to keep our feet on the ground.