Polly Glider (oz4632)

About this Plan

B Polly glider. The Polly Glider. 16-1/2 in span 1948 Nationals winner HLG.

Quote: "1948 Nats winner, high time holder, a good design indoor and out. A real champ! The Polly Glider, by Pete Demos.

A NEW national record and an all-time high of 1:12 was established by this polyhedral glider. This event occurred in the blimp hangar at Santa Ana. Calif , during the 48 All Western Open Meet. The record and a first place resulted on the ninth official flight. This over-shadowed the sister ships' time, flown by Carl Rambo, by only 0.4 of a second. The phenomenal 1:12 is attributed to the tremendous altitude this particular glider can attain with little or no loss at the peak of the launch.

The polyhedral glider may not be original or novel, but the research and experimentation carried on by the Oakland Cloud Dusters with this type glider is something to write about. The glider in this article is in reality a product of the combined efforts of a number of OCD members.

The initial attempt at the Polly gliders dates back two years, to the winter of '46 when Mike Demos flew a small Polly at the 60 ft gymnasium in Moffet Field, Sunnyvale, Calif. Results were so gratifying that the Cloud Dusters began immediate research in the indoor glider field with polyhedral gliders dominating at every indoor session.

By June 1947 the San Francisco 'Cow Palace,' a 90 ft high building, was acquired by the club and immediately members went after the glider records. I established the indoor B open record of 1:03.8 with a 33 sq in Polly glider. It proved its winning qualities by setting the pace for a first place and a high time trophy at the '47, All Western Open Meet in LA. The sister ship took a third, with other Polly gliders flown by Cloud Dusters practically sweeping the field in this event. Manuel Andrade in the meantime broke the A record with a time of 1:00.4 which still stands. Further flying in the Cow Palace with the 33 sq in Polly established many flights of 1 min plus, but never quite reaching its record time.

Larger gliders were frowned upon due to lack of ceiling and floor space, until the go ahead signal was given the club by the Navy to fly at the big top at Moffett Field. Hangar No 1 is approximately 198 ft high, which meant unlimited possibilities in all phases of glider research. Manuel Andrade set the pace to a new high for B open glider with 1:07.8, only to see this broken a short time later by Carl Rambo with a flight of 1:10.8.

Senior members of the organization were also beginning to boost their times, and Art Wells with Donald Robbers broke the A and B glider records.

At the '48 Nationals the Pollys began to show themselves in quantity, from various parts of the country. Mike won the high time with 1:03, Andrade placed third, and I was fifth. Mike also placed second, Open Outdoors, with a similar ship.

From these times and places taken it is obvious that these gliders not only are excellent performers but possess a consistency which is so important.

Fuselage. This should he constructed from very straight grained stock, flexible yet strong. Cut to size of 1/4 x 3/4 x 21 in. Draw in the outline, cut and sand smooth. Top and bottom are then rounded out. The nose section should be left rather heavy as it eliminates use of large amounts of clay, and is also-needed to balance out the long tail...."

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