Editor's comments

Abstract

This issue begins with a contributed paper by Hertensein and Martin on a unique set of measurements made in mountain-wave rotors using an instrumented sailplane.

This issue initiates the publication of papers presented at the XXIX OSTIV Congress held from 6 to 13 August 2008 at the site of the 30^th World Gliding Championships in the Open, 18m and 15m classes in Lüsse-Berlin, Germany.  The Schoeberl and Ross papers were presented at the Congress.  They provide historical and current information on solar power for electric-aircraft propulsion. Electric propulsion has implications for soaring flight.

The Congress was successful for Technical Soaring.  Forty-eight papers were submitted to the Congress and forty were presented.  Twenty-two papers have been submitted for publication and twenty-one speakers have promised to submit manuscripts two of which have been received.

The following Associate editors located the reviewers of the manuscripts in this issue: the Hertenstein/Martin manuscript (Trimmel) and the Schoebel manuscript (Fendt).  The Ross manuscript was not reviewed because it is a reprint of an American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics paper.  The final manuscripts were proof read by Jeffery and Linda Hostetler and an OSTIV member in southern California who wished to remain anonymous.   Finally, to assure accuracy of the manuscripts, each senior author received a ‘galley-proof’ prior to publication for ‘corrections-only’. 

I applaud the team of unselfish volunteers that made this issue possible in a timely manner: associate editors, peer-reviewers, proof readers and authors.  Thank you!  We welcome Helmut Fendt to the team as Associate Editor for sailplane development. 

For your information, indexes of issues for Technical Soaring can be found at www.ostiv.fai.org.  You can search this document using the following steps:

-        open the ‘OSTIV Index’ at www.ostiv.fai.org

-        right-click on the document, click on ‘Search’, type in the keyword and hit the ‘Search’ button 

Also, at soaringweb.org/Soaring_Index/Technical_Soaring, issues are indexed by author, subject and issue.  Hard-copies of back issues can be obtained from the OSTIV Secretariat.

Errors occurred in Volume 32, Numbers 1/2 and 3.  Please see the errata on the last page of this issue to correct these issues.

Finally, you are encouraged to send comments on papers to me so a useful dialogue can occur in Technical Soaring with the author(s).

Ward Hindman

OSTIV Chief Editor and Technical Soaring Editor

hindman@sci.ccny.cuny.edu, www.ostiv.fai.org (editor)