A Century of Soaring

Almost a century ago, on October 24, 1911 to be exact, Orville Wright soared for nine minutes and 45 seconds, heralding the first extended soaring flight and a flight that was intentionally planned to be a soaring activity. On the weekend of October 21 – 24, 2011 this flight (a record that lasted almost 10 years) will be celebrated where it happened, on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. The sport and science of soaring will be showcased as an exciting aerial activity that is ecologically kind using nature’s air currents instead of fuel.

Orville Wright soaring near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina in 1911. Photo Credit: Alpheus W. Drinkwater Collection, Joyner Library, East Carolina University (Click to enlarge)

It is hard to believe that this flight happened nearly 100 years ago. We know that there were soaring flights before Orville’s 9 minute 45 second flight. Otto Lilienthal soared briefly in the 1890’s during his thousands of glides. Octave Chanute’s pilots Avery and Herring soared momentarily in 1896 when wind gusts pushed them up forty feet higher than their starting points. The Wrights soared on the sands of Kitty Hawk as they were learning to control their 1902 glider. What differentiated the 1911 flight was that Orville Wright and his associate Alec Ogilvie went to Kitty Hawk with the specific intent to fly and experiment without a motor. They were intending to soar. Their actual goals remain the province of historical conjecture, but the fact that they soared for a longer time than required for the FAI “C” badge (a 1920’s development) remains.

The duration and the intent differentiate Orville’s record soaring flight from the earlier soaring experiences of Lilienthal, Chanute and the Wrights. Experts who have agreed on this point include Peter Riedel (German gliding pioneer), Charles H Gibbs-Smith (British aero historian), Tom Crouch (American aero historian), and Paul Schweizer.

The Director of the Lilienthal Museum in Germany, Dr. Bernd Lukasch, will be one of the Historical Symposium speakers at SOARING100. I’m sure he will accurately portray Lilienthal’s important role in gliding and soaring.

Story about Orville's soaring flights by Van Ness Harwood for the November 26, 1911 edition of the New York World (Click to enlarge)

References

1. Lewin Barringer, Flight Without Power (1942) p:6-7
2. Tom Crouch, The Bishop’s Boys (1989), p:444-445
3. Charles Harvard Gibbs-Smith, Aviation (1970) p:162
4. Peter Riedel, Start in den Wind (1977)
5. Paul Schweizer, Wings like Eagles (1988) p:8

About the Authors

Jim and Simine Short have spent most of their lives thoroughly enmeshed in the sport of soaring. Jim is a retired aviation industry executive from Chicago who originated the idea of SOARING100 to recognize the Wright Brothers’ contribution to the art and science of soaring. Jim is an airplane and glider pilot and a flight instructor. He serves as SOARING100 Event Chairman and has served as Soaring Society of America Chairman and was for many years a member of the SSA Board of Directors. He is the recipient of many SSA awards for his tireless and valuable contributions to soaring in the United States and beyond. Simine has been an active aerophilatelist for decades. Don’t know what that means? To learn more, read about it in Simine’s book, Glider Mail: An Aerophilatelic Handbook.

Editor’s Note: Professor Kevin Kochersberger gave a fascinating talk at the 2011 SSA Conference about the evolution of gliding flight from early 19th Century attempts to Orville’s 1911 duration record. Click here to view his presentation. ]