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Asiago 1924 - Great gliding competitions

It was the spring of 1924 when the National Aero League, sponsored by the newspaper "La Gazzetta dello Sport" announced the first Italian competition for motorless flight on Mount Sisemol on the Asiago Plateau.
Despite there being some months for preparing the gliders, for different reasons, many candidates gave up. Some because of lack of financial resources, others because they were facing technical difficulties and at the end, only the group of university students from Pavia proved to be seriously committed to accepting the challenge, overcoming several difficulties and headaches.
Nevertheless, when the date fixed for the competition was coming closer, their machine s were not ready so that, the National Aero League, who had announced the competition for the month of August, at first postponed it to September and then, in a second step, moved it to October.
Obviously October, being in the middle of the hot season and winter coming, produces too temperate a climate, unable to generate strong winds needed for soaring.
The National Aero League had also invited a few well known German pilots, Martens, Fuchs, Papenmeyer led by the famous Oscar Ursinus, known as "the Rhoen Father". These pilots already experienced in motorless flight, would help the Italian pilots to learn this new flying discipline. Our pilots were in fact completely lacking in experience, both in building and flying techniques.
100 years have passed since that historic event and, with the active participation of the Romeo Sartori airport in Asiago, we thought of commemorating the Centenary with an international gathering of vintage gliders wich was held from the 6th to the 14th September with the participation of German representatives of the Wasserkuppe in memory of their pilots who animated the international competition of October 1924

Images of the meeting.

 
 
   
   

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