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Soaring NOV.-DEC., 1941

THE STORY OF THE "Screaming Wiener"

By Wally Neugent

The Crown City Glider Club is one of the oldest clubs still active in Southern California. Organized in 1929, it has built a series of 4 ships, all being of original design both aerodynamically and structurally.

The first ship, an open trainer, and the first glider to fly from the top of Mt. Wilson, was flown by Harold Higbee a distance of 20 miles in 30 minutes to a landing at a pre-determined field in Arcadia.

The second ship, a 36-ft. full cantilever model of all-wood construction known as the "Ding Bat," with a 44 ft. span, was completed in 1932 and became known as the "Ding Batt 44."

With the advance of the depression the club membership dwindled down to three: Irv. Culver, Walter Burke, and myself. With undaunted interest in gliding we started work on a "two-place." This proved very expensive for it necessitated a large shop and a great deal of material. Forced to abandon the idea of the "Two-place," we decided to try to build a simple little ship with good performance; something we could build in an ordinary garage at a moderate price. We measured the garage and found it to be 18' 6'' long. This factor limited the span of the ship to 36'. With this in mind we went to work on the drawing board on a design that would fit the garage. But the cost of aircraft plywood still remained a major problem. With a firm grip on our money we went shopping and found a 1/8'' thick resin glued Douglas Fir plywood at a very reasonable price. So with the garage, the plywood, and a good many arguments (for which we are so well known) we started construction on a simple little ship which we hoped to have flying in six months.

This new plywood necessitated a good many changes from conventional structure, but with Mr.Culver's engineering ability we soon had a ship well on its way. The original plans did not call for a landing wheel but looking at it from a practical standpoint we made the necessary changes and installed one. Next there was the argument for and against spoilers. Well- we added the spoilers (I'm stubborn). We expected the ship to be a fast one and were concerned about aileron flutter, so we included a static balance on the aileron. Now came the question of how much washout the wing could stand-not much, therefore we added leading edge slots and highly differential aileron control.

As you can see, our simple little sailplane was taking on a few complications, and instead of six months we spent fourteen months in its construction. On April 13th, 1940, we were ready to make the test flight. Dawn found us well on our way to Rosamond Dry Lake. We did not want any observers on our first trip for we were not quite sure what to expect. So it was with great relief that we saw the ship rise gracefully in the air to a very successful maiden flight.

We had hoped to enter the Arvic Meet but were unable to do so due to some necessary minor changes. However, we entered the Southwest Soaring Meet held at Wichita Falls, Texas, and captured the design competition trophy. Somewhere along the line some wiseacre christened the sip "Screaming Wiener" and the name stuck. Inspiration for the name is the shrill whine the ship makes while climbing on the take-off.
Woody Brown flew the "Wiener"
 164 miles in five hours and three minutes, attaining an altitude of 6780 feet, for the third longest flight in the Wichita Falls contest.
Highly pleased with the success of our ship in the Texas meet, we turned for home where we have since made many successful soaring flights at Rosamond Dry Lake.
(Courtesy of "The Thermal")
[[image of plane]] Loomis

THUMBS UP!
Due to the war now upon us, we cannot see far into the future of civilian soaring in this country. But we'd like to go on record as being eager and willing to cooperate with the Government in any way it sees fit.
PEARL HARBOR needs a bit of recognition- eh, boys?