The Komet 163 was a rocket powered glider, once it's rocket burnt out it glid back to earth.
http://www.flightjournal.com/fj/articles/me163/me163_1.asp Kevin Raner ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jason Armistead" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Sunday, September 07, 2003 11:27 PM Subject: [aus-soaring] Rocket launching of gliders ? Anyone know if it's been done before ? > An unusual historical question for the combined genius of the list ... > > While visiting Ray Ash at Gulgong on Saturday (to scan some great old > photos of the early days of Southern Cross Gliding Club for our Back To > Camden Week starting 20th September), we were looking through Ray's early > log book. > > It's a British Gliding Association one, marked as 3rd Reprint 1949. > > On the inside front cover, it lists the Types of Launch as: > > C = Catapult > W = Winch > M = Motor car-tow > A = Aero-tow > > and > > R = Rocket assisted > > OK, while I can accept that catapult might be another word for Bungy > launching, I was a bit taken aback by the notion of launching a glider with > a ROCKET ! Ray mentioned he'd never really noticed that before either. > > I wonder if anyone can point me to any solid evidence of rocket assisted > launching of gliders by the British or others. > > It sounds like a novel, if somewhat dangerous, way to get airborne in a > sailplane ! > > Cheers > > Jason Armistead > Southern Cross Gliding Club > Camden NSW > Visit http://www.gliding.com.au/ ! > > > -- > * You are subscribed to the aus-soaring mailing list. > * To Unsubscribe: send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] > * with "unsubscribe aus-soaring" in the body of the message > * or with "help" in the body of the message for more information. > -- * You are subscribed to the aus-soaring mailing list. * To Unsubscribe: send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] * with "unsubscribe aus-soaring" in the body of the message * or with "help" in the body of the message for more information.
