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Sailplanes 1920 - 1945 (Volume 1)
Author: Martin Simons
Hard Cover, 272 pages, hundreds of color photos and scale line art
drawings, Copyright 2006
Dimensions: 9.61 x 11.89 x 0.79 inches
(244 x 302 x 20 mm)
Table of Contents
#1
Table of Contents
#2
Example Page 100
Example Page 101
About the Author
Back
Cover
Overview from the Back
Cover
This book, Volume 1 of a projected series, describes and illustrates
more than 120 types of sailplane, designed, built and flown in many
countries during the quarter century following the first organized gliding
competition on the Wasserkuppe in 1920. The astonishing achievements
of designers and builders, lacking modern materials and production methods,
and the flights made by the pilots of those times, deserve to be recorded
and remembered.
New scale drawings, produced in digital form,
show structural details with color shading to indicate the materials used.
Exact dimensions, cross sections and profiles are included. There are
more than 300 authentic photographs, many previously unpublished. The
textural commentary draws attention to significant trends and developments
in sailplane design.
This book will prove a rich source of
accurate information for scale modelers, who were much in mind when making
the drawings and selecting photographs. To fly most of the sailplanes
described here, the only way now is to build a large scale radio controlled
model.
Review by Paul Remde
I have always been a fan of the old "Wings" TV programs that document
the development and refinement of unique aircraft. It is
interesting to learn about the many failures and lessons learned during
the development process - and to see interesting film footage of the
flights of the aircraft. I find the "Sailplanes" series of books
by Martin Simons to be similar to the "Wings" programs because they
allow the reader to travel back in time to learn about the development
of sailplanes over the years. The books are created for anyone
that is interested in sailplanes. Martin created hundreds of scale
line-art drawings of the sailplanes that show the elegant lines and
design details of the aircraft. The drawings are detailed enough
to be used by modelers to create accurate scale models. I have
just finished reading all 3 'Sailplanes' books from cover to cover.
I thoroughly enjoyed every page. I thought I had previously seen
photos and details on most of the sailplanes in the world - boy was I
wrong! I learned of many obscure and interesting sailplanes from
manufacturers and private builders around the world. I especially
enjoyed the overview information found in the Preface and Introduction
sections at the beginning of each book. The books are well
organized so that they can be used as a reference when looking for
information on any rare or not-so-rare sailplane. The books are
not inexpensive, but they are worth every penny.
About the Author
Martin Simons has been involved in gliding for more than fifty years.
With the Gold C badge and two diamonds, he has flown about one hundred different types of
sailplanes, including twenty of those described in this work. He
is also a keen model sailplane designer, builder and flier.
English by birth he lives in Adelaide,
South Australia, with dual citizenship. In addition to the
two volumes 'Sailplanes', (1945 - 1965, & 1965 - 2000) his
earlier books include 'Slingsby Sailplanes', a standard reference on the British glider
manufacturing company, and he collaborated with Paul Schweizer to
produce 'Sailplanes by Schweizer', a companion book about the leading American
manufacturer. He wrote 'Model Aircraft Aerodynamics', the only work
of its kind in the English language, now in its fourth edition, and a
number of other books and a great many articles, not all of them about
aviation. |
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