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Susi 1A # |
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Photo: Robert Deering 10/23/2006 Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum Dulles International Airport (IAD) Chantilly, Virginia |
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Leonard Niemi's Sisu is the
most successful American competition sailplane ever
flown. John Ryan in 1962, Dean Svec in 1965, and A. J.
Smith in 1967, all won the United States National
Soaring Championships flying a Sisu ('see-soo'). In
1967, Bill Ivans (his Schempp-Hirth Nimbus II in NASM
collection) set a national speed record flying a Sisu 1A
at El Mirage, California, by skimming across the desert
at 135 kph (84 mph) over a 100-kilometer (62-mile)
triangular course. Alvin H. Parker took off from his hometown, Odessa, Texas, at the controls of the National Air and Space Museum's Sisu 1A and flew 1,042 km (647 miles) on July 31, 1964. This flight also shattered a symbolic and psychological barrier that had defeated sailplane pilots around the world for years. Joseph Lincoln called the 1,000-km milestone "for a good many years …the soaring pilot's four-minute mile on both sides of the Atlantic" in his soaring anthology, "On Quiet Wings," published in 1972. Dimensions: Wingspan: 15.2 m (50 ft) Length: 6.4 m (21 ft 2 in) Height: 1 m (41 in) Weights: Empty, 246 kg (546 lb) Gross, 349 kg (775 lb)
Source:
Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum |
