This year, 2011, we celebrate the 100th anniversary of the birth of recreational soaring. In October, 1911, Orville Wright and a friend returned to Kitty Hawk, eight years after he made the historic first controlled flight in an airplane. But this time, Orville brought only a glider. There was little purpose in his visit except to enjoy flying the glider. And that he did. On October 24th, on the longest of many flights that Orville made during his stay, he soared over the dunes at Kitty Hawk for nine minutes and 45 seconds, establishing a world duration record that stood for 10 years, until 1921 when a German pilot broke the record with a 10 minute flight.

The 2011 SSA Conference ended on January 29th with the SSA Awards Banquet. In recognition of this year as the centennial of soaring as a sport, the conference organizers invited Dr. Kevin Kochersberger to deliver the banquet speech. Dr. Kochersberger is Research Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Virginia Tech and Director of the Unmanned Systems Laboratory. He is also an airplane and glider pilot and was pilot of the Reproduction Wright Flyer at the 2003 Centennial of Flight Celebration in Kitty Hawk, NC. Among his many awards and honors, he was named the Aviation Week and Space Technology Aerospace Laureate for 2003.

Professor Kochersberger’s talk was an illustrated history of humanity’s attempts over the past two centuries to build and fly machines that could glide or soar while carrying a person. He gave a fascinating tour through time of the foibles, trials, and ultimate success that marked the evolution of motorless flight, culminating in Orville’s record soaring flight of 1911. It was a masterful presentation and one that kept me and I think most of the soaring enthusiasts in the audience enthralled from beginning to end–a great way to end the conference. We are indebted to Kevin for making the slides from his presentation available to the Soaring Cafe. Enjoy!

Dr. Kevin Kochersberger