of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.  [Figure 1-4]  The Wrights  developed a series of gliders while experimenting with  aerodynamics, which was crucial to developing a workable  control system. Many historians, and most importantly the  Wrights themselves, pointed out that their game plan was to  learn flight control and become pilots specifically by soaring,  whereas all the other experimenters rushed to add power  without refining flight control. By 1903, Orville and Wilbur  Wright had achieved powered flight of just over a minute by  putting an engine on their best glider design. Wolfgang Klemperer broke the Wright Brothers 1911 soaring  duration record with a flight of 13 minutes using ridge lift.  In 1928, Austrian Robert Kronfeld proved that thermal lift  could be used by a sailplane to gain altitude by making a  short out and return flight. In 1929, the National Glider  Association was founded in Detroit, Michigan; by 1930, the  first USA National Glider Contest was held in Elmira, New  York. In 1937, the first World Championships were held at  the Wasserkuppe in Germany.  By the 1950s, soaring was developing rapidly with the first  American, Dr. Paul MacCready, Jr., taking part in a World  Soaring Championships held in Sweden. Subsequently, Dr.  MacCready went on to become the first American to win a  World Soaring Championship in 1956 in France.  The period of the 1960s and 1980s found soaring growing  rapidly. During this period, there was also a revival of  hang gliders and ultralight aircraft as new materials and  a better understanding of low-speed aerodynamics made  new designs possible.  By the late 1990s, aviation had become commonplace with  jet travel becoming critical to the world economy. Soaring  had grown into a diverse and interesting sport. Modern high  performance gliders are made from composite materials  and take advantage of highly refined aerodynamics and  control systems. Today, soaring pilots use sophisticated  instrumentation, including global positioning system  (GPS) and altitude information (variometer) integrated into  electronic glide computers to go farther, faster, and higher  than ever before. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) defines a glider  as a heavier-than-air aircraft that is supported in flight by the  dynamic reaction of the air against its lifting surfaces, and  whose free flight does not depend principally on an engine.  [Figure 1-5]  The term “glider” is used to designate the rating  By 1906, the sport of gliding was progressing rapidly. An  American glider meet was sponsored by the Aero Club of  America on Long Island, New York. By 1911, Orville Wright  had set a world duration record of flying his motorless craft  for 9 minutes and 45 seconds. By 1920, the sport of soaring was coming into its own.  Glider design was spurred on by developments in Germany  where the World War I Treaty of Versailles banned flying  power aircraft. New forms of lift were discovered that made  it possible to gain altitude and travel distances using these  previously unknown atmospheric resources. In 1921, Dr.  Figure 1-4.  Orville Wright (left) and Dan Tate (right) launching  the Wright 1902 glider off the east slope of the Big Hill, Kill Devil  Hills, North Carolina on October 17, 1902. Wilbur Wright is flying  the glider. Figure 1-3.  Otto Lilienthal in flight. Figure 1-5.  A Schleicher ASK 21 glider. Glider or Sailplane? 1-3