Do gliders have any value for a military point-of-view?
Abandoning threads
>>30172282
ask Plissken, the Gullfire had a combat proven reputation and made him a legend
>>30172282
They were useful in WWII
They also got a lot of people killed
Kind of like being a paratrooper, except you're more of a bitch
Pilot training.
>>30172311
I believe that is the carbon dragon, just an FYI
>>30172537
Really?
They used a glider design with a specially made quiet motor for night-time, treetop reconnaissance in 'nam.
>>30172577
Maybe for a very poor country.
Otherwise, no, I don't see any use for gliders in modern day combat.
>>30172651
Huh, I thought it was some kind of meme that everybody here had weird ideas for how to make use of gliders. I wanted to see it for myself.
>>30172282
They did until Igor Sikorsky perfected the helicopter, rendering the glider militarily useless.
Characteristics of glider design has its uses, gliders themselves not so much. You are now aware that U-2S's have 3/4 of their airframe life left.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFmKh5uQfNM
>>30172695
Why not convert the U-2 into a drone at this point? Being up that high actually causes brain damage for the pilots. Sending a machine that is piloted remotely makes more sense.
>>30172788
cite your resources.
>>30172815
Bridge of Spies directed by Steven Spielberg starring Tom Hanks based on a book written by Giles Whittell.
>>30172282
No; the reason they were used in WWII at all was because the time it took to develop good passanger aircraft to replace them was prohobitive; even in their prime, they were nothing but an ad-hoc solution.
Go away.
>>30172788
>Being up that high actually causes brain damage for the pilots.
Is this bait? Because I seriously don't think you're this naive.
Those pilots wear something like an in-between of a flight suit and a space suit. They get oxygen in their helmets at all times. Astronauts don't get brain damage and that's even more harsh than 70,000 ft.
The helicopter mafia would go nuts if you started bringing back gliders
>>30172282
A specially quietened powered glider was used during the Vietnam war several times, then disappeared.
>>30173023
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_YO-3
?
>Nine of the 11 YO-3As produced operated in South Vietnam, at night, from 1970 to 1971 (14 months) and never took a round or were shot down.
Imagine if they had been operating silent gliders, how successful would air mobility have been if they actually achieved surprise versus the shitshow reality of helicopters?
>>30172788
Naw.
U2 pilots go on treadmills for an hour before flight with an oxygen tank to get the nitrogen out of their blood.
>>30172651
uhh...the USAF uses gliders as training items. so yeah. they have a use.
http://www.usafa.edu/tu/306ftg/94fts/programs.cfm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LET_TG-10
Who gives a fuck- they're fun. My 4- meter DG-800 r/c sailplane is a blast.
>>30172788
Zephyr
>>30172788
the U-2 went through a cockpit modernization a few years ago to increase the pressurization and cabin altitude. so yes, you were true, but no anymore.
>>30172282
Gliderfag pls go
>>30174435
Used*
Clearly not that important
They can offer the military a point of view.
>but probably not
gliders look like sex
post moar
Yes
Yes, pic related is one of the most produced military aircraft of all time
>>30172282
Welcome back gliderfag
>>30172788
It wasn't the altitude, it was a fuckup with the oxygen system that would cause minor brain damage after prolonged use.
>>30172844
My history teacher told me about that movie when we visited that bridge close to Potsdam, should I watch it?
>>30176624
thats a nice glider mein friend, zit would be a shame if something were to...happen to it.
>>30178409
I think it's funny how everyone on both sides thought those things were going to fuck up the gliders and parachutes en masse and all they really did was fuck up a couple specific landing spots and a few hundred dudes.
Not much that satellites and predators wouldn't already offer. Light single person gliders can be towed to a thousand feet or so, make their way to eighteen thousand feet (stopping there usually only because class A airspace and being unheated) and not come back for six hours. Particularly motor gliders could be fantastic observation platforms, but at this point I'm not sure what benefit it would have
I still want a fucking Stemme S-10VT though
>Sauce
I work at a glider port. Those little private fuckers launch at ten and we dont see them until five. Those are the unpowered ones.
>>30172282
Yes. IMAGINE a glider made out of hardwood (stealthy) and carrying light tanks and stugs. We catapult launch it from aircraft carriers to LAND on enemy ships. The light tanks and stugs will be IMPERVIOUS to cutlasses and shotguns that sailors are wont to have.
>>30172311
That's actually pretty cool.
>>30176302
I deliberately set you up, if you knew how to read you would have followed the link.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DG_Flugzeugbau_DG-1000
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DG_Flugzeugbau_DG-1000#Operators
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/94th_Flying_Training_Squadron#Aircraft
TL/DR: read.
