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Debbie Brandon, age 14, of Marion, Ohio, for her question:

WHO INVENTED THE GLIDER USED IN GLIDING AND SOARING?

Gliding and soaring is a sport of flying a motorless aircraft known as a glider or saiipiane. The first gliders, made of wood and fiber, were developed by a German inventor named Otto Lilienthal in the 1890s, and were subsequently improved upon by the American inventors Orville and Wilbur Wright.

Later design modifications have produced the highly streamlined modern craft, made of fiberglass, with slender wings spanning 50 to 60 feet. Gliders are equipped with spoilers to increase the descent rate. Their flight controls and instruments are similar to those of powered aircraft: an airspeed indicator, a control stick to operate the ailerons and elevators and an altimeter, a turn and bank indicator and a variometer that registers changes of altitude.

Glider flight is achieved when the craft has been put into motion fast enough to generate sufficient lift to overcome the force of gravity.

In the early days of the sport, gliders were towed by automobiles. Today crafts are towed by powered airplanes to a height of 2,000 to 3,000 feet.

Glider flight depends on searching for updrafts found along mountain slopes, in or under cumulus clouds or over arid terrain where thermals or hot rising air occur.

Hang gliding is a variation of glider soaring. Hang gliders have been popular since the 1970s. They are constructions resembling kites from which the flier is suspended by means of a harness and supported on a trapeze like frame. Maneuvering is done by shifting the body weight. International hang gliding competitions are now held.

Since World War II recreational glider soaring has become increasingly popular in many parts of the world. The sport began in Germany about 1910 on the Wasserkuppe, a hill in the Rhon Mountains. Competition commenced in 1922 and the first world championship was held in Germany in 1937.

International soaring contests are now held every two years by the Federation Aeronautique Internationale, which gives badges for various degrees of achievement in distance, altitude and duration of flight.

The Lilienthal Metal, named for the sport's originator, is its highest award.

The longest flight so far recorded is that of a German pilot named Hans Werner Grosse in 1972. He traveled 907.7 miles.

The altitude record of 46,267 feet was set in 1961 by Paul Bikle of the United States.

In 1809 an English inventor named Sir George Gayley built the first successful glider. In 1853 he built a crude glider that carried his coachman across a small valley. Historians regard the coachman's flight as the first manned glider flight, though he had no control over the aircraft. Lilienthal's flight in the 1890s was the first piloted venture.

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