By the nineteenth century, people fascinated with the idea of flying were experimenting with gliders (aircraft with no motors). After World War I, gliding became a sport in the United States and in Germany. The Port Townsend, Washington, Aero Museum has a small collection of gliders on display.
Bowlus BA-100 (Baby Albatross):
The kit-built Baby Albatross was one of the most popular sailplanes of the pre-World War II era. It was designed by Hawley Bowlus and introduced in 1938. The Baby Albatross was intended to be an inexpensive glider: it sold for $750 ready-to-fly or for $385 as a kit. A total of 156 kits were delivered.
Construction of the Baby Albatross includes wings and tail surfaces of wood covered in aircraft fabric. The tailboom is a metal tube and the cockpit is made from molded plywood.
There are about 12 of these aircraft still on the Federal Aviation Administration civil aircraft register.
1942 Laister-Kauffman LK-10A:
Over 150 of these sailplanes were delivered to the U.S. Army as two-place training gliders. The airplane has fully-cantilevered wood wings and tails, with a steel tub fuselage, all covered in fabric. Following World War II, it became popular for racing.
This sailplane was designed by Jack Laister based on his 1938 single-seat Yankee Doodle design. When the Army Air Corps expressed interest in it, they asked for him to arrange for its manufacture. With businessman John Kauffman, he found the Laister-Kauffman Corporation in St. Louis, Missouri.
The Army Air Corps has intended to use the TG-4A to train pilots for cargo gliders, but it was discovered that the flight characteristics were very different than those of the cargo gliders and thus experience gained on the TG-4A was no particularly relevant. By the end of the war, all of the aircraft had been withdrawn from service.
Schleicher Ka6E Glider:
Designed in Germany by Alexander Schleicher, a total of 394 were produced. Schleicher is considered one of the pioneers of sailplane design. He originally worked in a furniture factory, and after he won a major prize in a gliding completion, he founded his own company in 1926. With the outbreak of World War II, civilian aircraft production in Germany stopped and did not resume until 1951.
