National Soaring Museum - June 2009
The National Soaring Museum is located on top of Harris Hill.  The NSM staff superbly hosted the IVSM.  They have an outstanding facility with a big meeting room on the bottom floor that was used for the daily pilots brief. 
 
Soaring preceded powered flight.  In 1902 the Wright brothers flew hundreds of hops in a glider similar to this replica.  Once they had mastered controlled flight, they were ready for the first powered flight on December 17, 1903. 
 
The 1902 featured wing warping for roll control, a canard elevator for pitch control, and moveable twin rudders for yaw control. 
 
The NSM has a piece of the actual 1903 powered Wright flier. 
 
Bowlus 1-S-2100 Senior Albatross "Falcon"
 
The NSM had this neat diorama which showed every glider from earliest to latest -- going clockwise.  This is the left -- early -- side.
 
And the right -- latest -- side.
 
Each glider model is numbered with a description below.  Here's the description on #72, my Ka-8B.
 
And the model of #72.
 
The DFS Olympia "Meise".  One of the morning talks was about this glider which has a most interesting history.  Soaring was going to be one of the events in the 1940 Olympics.  There was a competition to develop a single glider type that everyone would use in the competitin.  The German entry won the competition.  Of course, the 1940 Olympics did not take place because of World War II, but the Meise was an advanced glider for its day and quite a few of them were built after the war in various countries.   
 
A Franklin.  I saw this particular glider fly -- from an airborne perch in the Ka-4 -- in IVSM 2000 and at a VSA Regatta at Kutztown. 
 
The Bowlus Baby Albatross. 
 
The fuselage of a World War II combat glider. 
 
Pretty spartan. 
 
The modern soaring wing of the museum featuring the latest glass ships. 
 
The new Schweizer wing featuring Schweizer gliders built just down the hill near Elmira airport.   Bill Schweizer was one of the morning speakers and gave a most interesting talk on the history of soaring and Harris Hill.
 
The famous Schweizer I-26. 
 

The Bald Eagle. 

No one has found Benjamin Franklin’s niggling personal attacks on the bald eagle particularly persuasive, not when matched up against its awesome physical characteristics.  Brown with a white head (“balde” is Old English for white — hence the name) and a bright yellow beak, the bird has a wingspan of up to eight feet. Its nests have been known to weigh as much as two tons. When in normal flight, it reaches speeds of up to 60 mph, and it can top 100 mph when diving toward its prey. Its eyes are roughly six times more powerful than ours, and its penetrating gaze seems to say, “Don’t tread on me.”

 … Rich Lowry

 
 
 
 
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