| Histoire résumée | If not the world's first military glider, the Engineering Division GL-2 is certainly the first to be owned and flown by the U.S. Army Air Service. It was built purely as a research model at McCook Field, Dayton, Ohio, the predecessor of today's famous Wright Field, and was not intended as a prototype for a series of glider designs. The number 23-2 on the side indicates that it was the second aircraft procured by the Army in the fiscal year of 1923, which began on July 1, 1922.
The design was developed as the result of information available from the early post-World War I glider meets held in Germany, at the site that later became the famous Wasserkuppe, and one of the earliest international meets held at Itford, England.
The report went on to say that the glider would make an excellent observation post under windy conditions when flown as a kite, and would be superior to an observation balloon under such conditions. Whether this -suggestion was followed up or not is not known. The GL-2 was flown only on short auto tows on level McCook Field. In carrying out a further suggestion that gliders dropped from altitudes would make good anti-aircraft gunnery targets, small gliders, one of which was the GL-l, were dropped from balloons or released from airplanes after being adjusted to fly in circles. |
