A fixed-wing aircraft is a heavier-than-air flying machine, such as an airplane, which is capable of flight using wings that generate lift caused by the aircraft's forward airspeed and the shape of the wings. Fixed-wing aircraft are distinct from rotary-wing aircraft, and ornithopters. The wings of a fixed-wing aircraft are not necessarily rigid; kites, hang gliders, variable-sweep wing aircraft and airplanes that use wing morphing are all examples of fixed-wing aircraft.
A motor glider is a fixed-wing aircraft that can be flown with or without engine power. The FAI Gliding Commission Sporting Code definition is: a fixed-wing aerodyne equipped with a means of propulsion (MoP), capable of sustained soaring flight without thrust from the means of propulsion. In the US, a powered glider may be certificated for up to two occupants, up to 850 kg maximum weight, and with a maximum ratio of weight to wing span squared of 3 kg/m2. Similar requirements exist in European JAA/EASA regulations, at a maximum weight of 750 kg.
The Aériane Swift is a lightweight (48 kg) foot-launched tailless sailplane whose rigid wings have a span of 40 feet. The Swift has been succeeded by the "Swift'Lite".
Richard E. Schreder was an American naval aviator and sailplane developer, responsible for design and development of the HP/RS-series kit sailplanes marketed from 1962 until about 1982. Schreder also founded and ran Airmate, a successful drafting supplies company.
The National Soaring Museum (NSM) is an aviation museum whose stated aim is to preserve the history of motorless flight. It is located on top of Harris Hill near Elmira, New York, United States.
The Bennett Aircraft Corporation Bi-motored Transport Commercial Number One (BTC-1) Executive was a 1930s American eight-seat light transport aircraft built by the Bennett Aircraft Corporation. In the ten-year span of its known life, the Bennett BTC-1 was identified in print by four different names: the Bennett, the Breese Bennett, the Bowlus Bennett and the Globe BTC-1.
The Schneider Grunau Baby was a single-seat sailplane first built in Germany in 1931, with some 6,000 examples constructed in some 20 countries. It was relatively easy to build from plans, it flew well, and the aircraft was strong enough to handle mild aerobatics and the occasional hard landing. When the Baby first appeared, it was accepted wisdom that the pilot should feel as much unimpeded airflow as possible, to better sense rising and falling currents of air and temperature changes etc.
The Schweizer SGM 2–37 is a two-place, side-by-side, fixed gear, low wing motor glider.
A glider or sailplane is a type of glider aircraft used in the leisure activity and sport of gliding. This unpowered aircraft can use naturally occurring currents of rising air in the atmosphere to gain altitude. Sailplanes are aerodynamically streamlined and so can fly a significant distance forward for a small decrease in altitude.
The Bailey-Moyes Dragonfly is an Australian-American two-seats-in-tandem, high-wing, strut-braced, open cockpit, conventional landing gear-equipped ultralight aircraft. The aircraft has been in production since 1990 and was designed as a special-purpose tug for hang gliders and ultralight sailplanes. It is available as a complete aircraft or as a kit for amateur construction. The aircraft has been variously produced by Moyes Microlights, Bailey-Moyes Microlights and currently LiteFlite of Botany, New South Wales, all different iterations of the same company.
The Bowlus BA-100 Baby Albatross is an American high-wing, strut-braced, open cockpit, pod-and-boom glider that was designed by Hawley Bowlus and introduced in 1938.
The Bowlus BS-100 Super Albatross is a single seat, mid-wing glider that was designed by Hawley Bowlus in 1938.
The Bowlus/Nelson BB-1 Dragonfly is an American, two seat, strut-braced, high-wing motor glider that was developed from the Bowlus BA-100 Baby Albatross glider by Hawley Bowlus.
The Nelson H-44 is an American single ignition, four-cylinder, horizontally opposed, direct drive, two-stroke aircraft engine that was developed by the Nelson Engine Company for use in motorgliders.
The Nelson Hummingbird PG-185B is an American, tandem two seat, mid-wing motor glider that was developed by Nelson Aircraft after discontinuing the Nelson Dragonfly.
The Schreder Airmate HP-11 is an American mid-wing, V-tailed, single seat glider designed by Richard Schreder. Airmate was the name of Schreder's design company.
The Maupin Windrose is an American high-wing, single-seat glider and motor glider that was designed by Jim Maupin for the Sailplane Homebuilders Association Design Contest.
The TeST TST-14 Bonus is a Czech high-wing, T-tailed, two-seats-in-tandem glider and motor glider, designed and produced by TeST Gliders.
The Barel Graal is a French mid-wing, T-tailed single-seat motor glider that was designed by Max Barel and produced by Graal Aéro as a complete ready-to-fly aircraft or as a kit for amateur construction.
The Daimler L15, sometimes later known as the Daimler-Klemm L15 or the Klemm-Daimler L15 was an early two-seat low-powered light aircraft intended to popularise flying. In mid-career it flew as a glider.
