Gliding Nostalgia

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The Baker-McMillan Cadet




The Baker-McMillan Cadet is an American, high-wing, strut-braced, open-cockpit, single-seat glider that was designed in 1929 by Frank R. Gross and produced by Baker-McMillan.

The Cadet was designed by Dr. Gross, a former member of the Akaflieg Darmstadt (a German university flying group), in 1929 as an improvement over the primary gliders then in use and as an aircraft that would offer soaring capability. The Cadet is built with a steel tube fuselage and a wooden wing that is supported by dual parallel struts, with jury struts. The tail is a wire-braced wooded structure. The whole aircraft is covered in doped aircraft fabric covering.

Between 30 and 40 Cadets were constructed.

The Cadet was the first glider to be flown at Elmira, New York after Wolfgang Klemperer, Warren Eaton and Earl Southee surveyed the area and determined it had potential for soaring flights. One flight was flown by Jack O'Meara, a factory pilot for Baker-McMillan, who had a flight of one hour and 38 minutes from Elmira's South Mountain. One Cadet was flown from water on twin floats.

On another occasion four Cadets were towed aloft at the same time and released by a Goodyear Blimp over Akron, Ohio.

As of March 2011 two Cadets remained on the US Federal Aviation Administration registry.

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The Antonov A-9

The Antonov A-9 was a single seat sailplane designed and built in the USSR in the 1940s, a development of the record setting Red Front 7 or A-7.

Oleg Antonov had designed sailplanes since the early 1930s, most memorably the Red Front 7 which, flown by Olga Klepikova, set a world distance record of 749 km (466 mi) that stood from 1939 to 1951. The A-9 is seen as a development of that aircraft, though detailed information from this period of Soviet aviation is often limited. The fuselages and tail units of the two aircraft were very similar but the wings were quite distinct.


Antonov A-9

The A-9 was a cantilever, shoulder wing monoplane. In plan, the wing had a short, constant chord centre section and long, straight tapered outer panels, with sweep on both edges, terminating in rounded and downward curled wing tips. The panels were demountable from the centre section for transport; unusually, the centre section was an integral part of the fuselage structure, its single box spar spanning the 3.2 m (10 ft 6 in) section unbroken. The spar continued beyond the central section-outer panel joint, the whole wing having plywood covering ahead of the spar and aircraft fabric covering aft. Long span, tapered, fabric covered and mass balanced ailerons occupied about ⅔ of the trailing edges of the outer panels; these panels also carried Schempp-Hirth type airbrakes, placed just behind the spar and ending at the panel mounting joint. The wing section was slightly reflexed towards the rear and thick, with maximum depth far forward at only about 20% chord, making the profile steep nosed.

The ply covered fuselage of the A-9 was oval in cross-section, deep ahead of the wings and almost circular to the rear, giving it a pod and boom appearance. The fixed tail surfaces were also ply covered, the fin narrow but with a small fuselage fillet. The control surfaces were fabric covered. In plan the horizontal tail was tapered with sweep on both edges; the broad, curved and balanced rudder reached to the keel and was hinged well aft, almost in line with the elevator trailing edge, for clearance and moment. The upper fuselage line was almost flat, even over rear part of the long, two piece canopy, though its windscreen curved down sharply into the nose. There was no skid or wheeled undercarriage; instead the A-9 was launched from a wheeled, drop-off dolly and landed on the locally internally strengthened fuselage underside, aided by a tail bumper.

Because of its speed, the A-9 was mostly flew in competitions and record setting flights.

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Yorkshire Gliding Club president Moyra Johnson taking flight at 93

Moyra Johnson (93) from York, has helped a gliding club mark its 75th anniversary by taking to the skies above one of North Yorkshire’s top landmarks.

Moyra was one of the first people to fly from Yorkshire Gliding Club’s Sutton Bank base when she took to the air in 1935.

Now the club’s president, she was also present at an event to celebrate the milestone and recalled when she first flew from the 228ft-high base above Kilburn’s White Horse.


Moyra Johnson, right, watches a glider take off from Sutton Bank in 1935

She said: “I was 20 years old when I got my glider’s licence. I was so competitive and it meant I didn’t want to be beaten by the boys. I did it just for fun and I never entered any competitions. I can still fly in two-seaters now and I still get a thrill out of it.

“It’s a good life and it’s really exciting to be up there in a glider.

The club was set up by a group of enthusiasts on April 21, 1934.

Chairman Graham Evison said the club wanted to mark the anniversary by attracting youngsters to try the sport, with several events planned.

The club aims to take 75 youngsters up in gliders this year.

Officials at the group emphasised the sport is not elitist, and said they would welcome anyone wanting to give gliding a try.


Yorkshire Gliding Club’s president Moyra Johnson, who first flew solo in 1935, with a 1940s’ T21 Slingsby at Sutton Bank. Pic: Richard Doughty

Mr Evison said: “Flying in a glider is a major achievement and what we are trying to do now is to get as many people interested in gliding as we can.

“It’s not an elitist sport, and one of the problems we have is that people think it is.

“We currently have about 175 members who come from various backgrounds.”

http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/4314..._flight_at_93/

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A college student prepares to try out a small glider at the London Gliding Club on Dunstable Downs on 15th April 1933 (Photo: Fred Morley)

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Gliding Stamps


Russian Antonov A-9 stamp


Commemoration of the 13th World Gliding Championships in Vršac, Yugoslavia, in 1972


1935 "Air Glider & Yachts" stamp from Austria