Playing with gliders

INTRODUCTION

In its simplest form, a glider is an unpowered aircraft, an airplane without a motor. Gliders are amazing and graceful machines, and are about as close as humans can get to soaring like birds.From paper airplanes to the space shuttle, there are many types of gl­iders. A glider has three forces acting on it as compared to the four forces that act on a powered aircraft. Both types of aircraft are subjected to the forces of lift, drag, and weight. The powered aircraft has an engine that generates thrust, while the glider has no thrust as the glider doesn't contains any type of motor.[1]

Types of gliders:

1. Hang-gliders

2. Paragliders

3. Military gliders etc.

History of gliders:

The first glider was originated in china in 500 B.C.by a person named Lu Pan. After that an engineer named Leonardo Da Vinci in 1846 starts designing a glider which resembles to the helicopter.After sometime Otto Lilienthal built the first truly successful glider.After first world war many countries starts using of gliders for military purposes and afterthat the use of glider becomes common.

Parts of a glider

A glider has same parts as an airplane. Following are the parts of a glider:

1.fuselage

2.wings

3.control surfaces

4.landing gear

now have a look at each one by one.

FUSELAGE:

• It can be defined as the main body of a glider.
• On comparing with a airplane,the fuselage is the main structure that control the flight crew,passangers,and cargo.
• It is positioned in the middle and wings are attached to it.

They are designed as smooth as possible to allow the plane to slip through the air.

Jump up ^ http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/k-12/airplane/glidpaper.html