Riding the Wind: Gliding into History
Formed in 1934 by pioneering aviators including Fred Slingsby, Phillip Wills and Norman Sharpe. Over the years it became one of the UK's leading gliding clubs and remains a place to experience the thrill of silent flight today.
Former members of the club include Amy Johnson, the celebrated pilot who became the first woman to fly solo from England to Australia in 1930, trained and flew here, drawn by the challenge and freedom of powerless flight.
There are suggestions some members had less noble intentions. In 1937 Rudolf Haslinger, older brother of a confirmed German spy Kasper Haslinger, became the first foreign pilot in Britain to earn a Silver C gliding badge. When the Second World War broke out, questions arose about his time at the gliding club; was he simply a keen aviator, or was he gathering intelligence?
The image below, although not the best quality, is an amazing piece of social history uncovered by volunteers at the Yorkshire Gliding Glub archive. It shows Rudolph Haslinger, before the start of his fifty mile flight from Sutton Bank to Hull.
