List of glider pilots

This list of notable glider pilots contains the names of those who have achieved fame in gliding and in other fields:

Notable in gliding

Ruth Alexander - female altitude record breaker, first woman glider instructor in the U.S.
Neil Armstrong - astronaut on first Moon landing, active glider pilot appeared on 60 Minutes TV newsmagazine.^[1]^[2]
Bill Bedford Test pilot - first to fly Hawker P.1127 and Harrier.
Paul Bikle - NASA Director, glider altitude record setter and Soaring Hall of Fame
William Hawley Bowlus, first American to break Wright brothers 1911 gliding record, Designer of first military prototype glider the XCG-16A, Superintendent of construction of the Spirit of St. Louis and U.S. Soaring Hall of Fame member

Anne Burns - British Champion, holder of multiple records, aerospace engineer
Janusz Centka - multiple world champion, ...^[3]
Anthony Deane-Drummond - Major-General & British National Champion
Heini Dittmar, test pilot (first person over 1000km/h) and gliding record breaker
Wilhelm Düerkop, glider aerobatic champion
Richard C. du Pont - director of military glider program
Einar Enevoldson - test pilot and gliding record breaker
Markus Feyerabend, glider aerobatics champion
Steve Fossett - entrepreneur and gliding record breaker^[4]
Nicholas Goodhart World Champion, record breaker and inventor of the Mirror sight deck landing system
Tadeusz Góra, gliding record breaker, first winner of the Lilienthal Gliding Medal
Hans-Werner Grosse - 46 world records^[5]
Doris Grove - female world record breaker, first woman to fly 1000 km, and U.S. Soaring Hall of Fame member ^[6]
Julius Hatry, glider designer
Barron Hilton - hotel magnate and founder of the Barron Hilton Cup for gliding^[7]
Wolf Hirth, German gliding pioneer and sailplane designer
Klaus Holighaus, glider designer and European Champion
Hans Jacobs, glider designer
Joachim Kuettner, atmospheric scientist and gliding record breaker
Thomas Knauff - author, instructor, world record breaker, and U.S. Soaring Hall of Fame member ^[8]
Robert Kronfeld- Austrian gliding champion and sailplane designer
Jean-Marie Le Bris - pioneer of French aviation
George Lee - Three times world champion, ex-RAF
Otto Lilienthal - German machine engineer, first controlled gliding flights to 250 m
Paul MacCready - aviation inventor, devised the MacCready Theory on speed to fly^[9]
Edward Makula - world champion, 7 world records
Jerzy Makula - six times world glider aerobatic champion^[10]^[11]
Peter Masak - U.S. Soaring Team member, developed the first practical winglets for sailplanes
Willy Messerschmitt, aircraft designer, including gliders
George Moffat - author, two-time world champion, and U.S. Soaring Hall of Fame member^[12]
John J. Montgomery - U.S. physicist, first controlled glider flight in U.S., and U.S. Soaring Hall of Fame member
Derek Piggott - flight instructor and movie stunt pilot^[13]
Helmut Reichmann - German professor, author and three-time gliding world champion
Hanna Reitsch - test pilot and breaker of several gliding records^[14]
Klaus Ohlmann - 36 world records ^[15], member of the Mountain Wave Project^[16]
Joan Meakin Price, first woman to glide over the English Channel (1934).
Peter Riedel, gliding champion
Ingo Renner - four times world champion^[17], two world records^[18], flight instructor
Cliff Robertson - actor and soaring activist^[19]
Martin Schempp, glider designer and pilot
Richard Schreder naval aviator and developer of the HP/RS-series kit sailplanes marketed from 1962 until about 1982.
Peter Scott - naturalist (founder of World Wildlife Fund and ex-chairman of British Gliding Association)^[20]
Wally Scott - world record breaker, U.S. Soaring Hall of Fame member, and multi-time recipient of the Lewin B. Barringer Memorial Trophy^[21]^[22]
Karl Striedieck - world record breaker, and U.S. Soaring Hall of Fame member ^[23]
Oskar Ursinus, gliding pioneer and designer
Gerhard Waibel, glider pilot and designer
Ann Welch, instructor and administrator
Philip Wills, world champion and administrator
Wright Brothers - early glider pioneers, invented 3-axis flight control on 1902 glider, set world glider duration record in 1911 (also widely credited with inventing the airplane)
Jan Wróblewski, - Polish glider pilot; World Champion in 1965 and 1972; awarded the FAI Lilienthal Medal in 1972; set a world record of out-and-return distance 678.90 km in 1962

Other notable people known to fly gliders

Richard Bach - author
Barbara Cartland - author^[24]
Kalpana Chawla - astronaut
John Denver - singer/songwriter
Hugh Downs - television news anchor
Matthew Fox - actor^[25]
Erich Hartmann - most successful fighter pilot of all times (352 confirmed victories)^[26]
Will Hay - British comic actor^[27]
Marsha Ivins - astronaut
John Kerry - U.S. Senator and former presidential candidate^[28]
Charles Lindbergh - winner of the Orteig Prize as pilot on first solo nonstop Atlantic crossing flight^[29]
William S. McArthur - astronaut
Richie McCaw - All Blacks captain ^[30]
Steve McQueen - actor, star of The Thomas Crown Affair (1968 film)^[31]
Mike Melvill - Spaceship One test pilot^[32]
Story Musgrave - astronaut on Hubble telescope repair mission
Robert Pearson - airline pilot and glider pilot who glided a Boeing 767 to safety^[33]
Christopher Reeve - actor^[34]
Michel Rocard - French former prime minister^[35]
Alan Shepard - astronaut on first Project Mercury space flight
Chesley Sullenberger - Captain of US Airways Flight 1549 which ditched in the Hudson River
Peter Twiss - test pilot and former holder of the World Air Speed Record

References

^ "CBS interview with Neil Armstrong includes clip of gliding". CBS News. 2005-11-03. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/11/03/60minutes/main1008288_page3.shtml. Retrieved 2006-09-26.
^ "Being The First Man On The Moon, Ed Bradley Talks To Neil Armstrong About Fame, Family And Apollo 11 - CBS News". 2005-11-03. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/11/03/60minutes/main1008288_page3.shtml. Retrieved 2007-08-01.
^ "FAI awards of Janusz Centka". http://www.fai.org/awards/recipient.asp?id=3957. Retrieved 2008-01-11.
^ "Link to Steve Fossett's glider altitude record". http://www.perlanproject.com/. Retrieved 2006-09-01.
^ "FAI World Records by Hans-Werner Grosse". http://records.fai.org/pilot.asp?from=gliding&id=163. Retrieved 2007-01-11.
^ "FAI World Records by Doris Grove". http://records.fai.org/pilot.asp?from=gliding&id=68. Retrieved 2006-12-11.
^ "FAI article on the Barron Hilton Cup". http://www.fai.org/gliding/taxonomy/term/5?from=5. Retrieved 2006-09-26.
^ "FAI World Records by Tom Knauff". http://records.fai.org/pilot.as?from=gliding&id=75. Retrieved 2006-12-10.
^ "Link to Paul MacCready bio". http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/mac0bio-1. Retrieved 2006-09-26.
^ "Jerzy Makula's rankings in FAI world and european championships". http://events.fai.org/aerobatics/pilot.asp?id=3665. Retrieved 2007-01-11.
^ "FAI Centenary Medal recipients". http://www.fai.org/centenary/node/25. Retrieved 2007-01-11.
^ "FAI World Records by George Moffat". http://records.fai.org/pilot.asp?from=gliding&id=693. Retrieved 2006-12-10.
^ Piggott, Derek (2002). Gliding: A handbook on soaring flight. A & C Black. ISBN 0-7136-6148-8.
^ "Bio of Hanna Reitsch". http://www.ctie.monash.edu.au/hargrave/reitsch.html. Retrieved 2006-09-26.
^ "FAI World Records by Klaus Ohlmann". http://records.fai.org/pilot.asp?from=gliding&id=1902. Retrieved 2007-01-11.
^ "Mountain Wave Project". http://213.157.12.16/Defaultengl.htm. Retrieved 2007-01-11.
^ "SSA: World Soaring Champions". http://www.ssa.org/UsTeam/ust_champs.htm. Retrieved 2008-01-11.
^ "FAI: world records of Ingo Renner". http://records.fai.org/pilot.asp?from=gliding&id=71. Retrieved 2008-01-11.
^ "National Aviation Hall of Fame article on Cliff Robertson". http://nationalaviation.blade6.donet.com/components/content_manager_v02/view_nahf/htdocs/menu_ps.asp?NodeID=1271444555&group_ID=1134656385&Parent_ID=-1. Retrieved 2006-09-26.
^ "Bio of Sir Peter Scott". http://www.oundlesociety.org/SirPeterScott_1.asp. Retrieved 2006-09-26.
^ Soaring Hall of Fame (2011). "The Soaring Hall of Fame - Alphabetical Listing". http://www.soaringmuseum.org/halloffame/halloffamebios.html#P. Retrieved 25 February 2011.
^ Leibacher, John (2009). "The Lewin B. Barringer Memorial Trophy". http://soaringweb.org/Awards/barringer.html. Retrieved 25 February 2011.
^ "FAI World Records by Karl Striedieck". http://records.fai.org/gliding/aircraft.asp?id=284. Retrieved 2006-12-10.
^ "Barbara Cartland biography". http://www.barbaracartland.com/static/life.aspx. Retrieved 2006-09-26.
^ "Bio of Matthew Fox". http://men.style.com/details/features/landing?id=content_3461. Retrieved 2006-09-26.
^ "New York Times article on Erich Hartmann, Oct 23 1993". The New York Times. 1993-10-23. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0CE0D91E3BF930A15753C1A965958260. Retrieved 2006-09-26.
^ Mark McKay Laugh Magazine Issue 22 2001
^ "Boston Globe article on John Kerry". The Boston Globe. http://www.boston.com/globe/nation/packages/kerry/062103b.shtml. Retrieved 2006-09-26.
^ "Article on glider flight by Lindbergh". http://www.tpghs.org/Bow&Lindy1930.html. Retrieved 2006-09-26.
^ Gallagher, Brendan (2006-12-14). "Daily Telegraph report 17 Dec 2006". The Daily Telegraph (London). http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/main.jhtml?xml=/sport/2006/12/14/srabou14.xml. Retrieved 2006-12-20.
^ "Evidence that Steve McQueen was a glider pilot". http://www.eagleflight.org/cyberSermons/growing_church/eagles_wings.html. Retrieved 2006-09-26.
^ "Mike Melvill bio". http://www.roycecarlton.com/speakers/melvill_bio.html. Retrieved 2006-09-26.
^ "Description of the Gimli glider accident". Archived from the original on 2006-08-19. http://web.archive.org/web/20060819205629/http://www.silhouet.com/motorsport/tracks/gimli.html. Retrieved 2006-09-26.
^ "Interview with Chritopher Reeve". http://www.chrisreevehomepage.com/interview-scavullo.html. Retrieved 2006-09-26.
^ "Bio of Michel Rocard (in French)". http://www.lepays.net/jdj/02/03/07/IGF/4/article_12.html. Retrieved 2006-09-26.