Rigid glider towing
These 1942 photos show testing by the Germans of a rigid tow-bar for glider launching and towing. Experiments with a bar 1 to 10 meters long were tried successfully. The method allowed safer nighttime operation. The practise never became widespread as the JU 52 towplanes required strengthening of the fuselage and they could not afford to be taken out of service for the time required.
We tried the same thing about the same time, unstable in longitudinal axis and I can imagine the stress put on the aft fuselage of the tow plane. There could be a point of who's flying who? Technical Soaring did a study of this as well in the 1970's and found the same thing, overall not good.
ReplyDeleteI guess the concept had to be tested but intuitively it does not seem right, you'd think turbulence would be a big factor.
ReplyDeleteYes gave this some thought and I would guess the glider pilot was told no flight control inputs and in fact they may have been locked in the trail position. So the tow AC did all the flying. I saw a sailplane crash a tow plane once, not a pretty sight.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely not an option with the ME-323 Gigant!
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