AN INTERNATIONAL ONE-DESIGN CLASS AND THE OLYMPICS

Abstract

No doubt, there will be proposals to take what would seem to be the easy way, and choose an existing design for the Olympic sailplane. This would be very short sighted and would eliminite a chance to encourage new designs and new concepts for lower-priced and safer sailplanes. It would raise the question of how you could choose an existing sailplane on a fair basis. The opportunity to have a stimulating design contest that would further the 'Art and Science' of sailplane design would also be lost. With the first Olympic sailplane competition scheduled for 1992, there is ample time for a design contest and for a number of sources to be turning out Olympic sailplanes in good numbers. Such an Olympic sailplane would encourage gliding around the world and enable more countries to be involved in international competition. The design contest would be an interesting and challenging competition for the designers and Akafliegs around the world, and give the CIVV and OSTIV a lot more visibility. The "Standard Class" features would provide a sailplane that is suitable for other purposes, and yet be an ideal Olympic sailplane. It could be used for other than Olympic compitition and could be flown without ballast to get the benefit of lighter structural weight. There would also be "fall out" from this contest. Although only one sailplane would be the winner, the other designs entered would no doubt have many new features that would help to further the art of sailplane design, and some, no doubt, would be put into production as a class in their own country. It is hoped that this paper will help to advance the idea of a contest io pick a new one-design sailplane for the Olympics.