Sailplanes 1920 - 1945 (Volume 1)
Author: Martin Simons
Hard Cover, 272 pages, hundreds of color photos and scale line art drawings, Copyright 2006
Dimensions: 9.61 x 11.89 x 0.79 inches (244 x 302 x 20 mm)

Overview from the Back Cover
This book, Volume 1 of a projected series, describes and illustrates more than 120 types of sailplane, designed, built and flown in many countries during the quarter century following the first organized gliding competition on the Wasserkuppe in 1920.  The astonishing achievements of designers and builders, lacking modern materials and production methods, and the flights made by the pilots of those times, deserve to be recorded and remembered.

New scale drawings, produced in digital form, show structural details with color shading to indicate the materials used.  Exact dimensions, cross sections and profiles are included.  There are more than 300 authentic photographs, many previously unpublished.  The textural commentary draws attention to significant trends and developments in sailplane design. 

This book will prove a rich source of accurate information for scale modelers, who were much in mind when making the drawings and selecting photographs.  To fly most of the sailplanes described here, the only way now is to build a large scale radio controlled model.

Review by Paul Remde
I have always been a fan of the old "Wings" TV programs that document the development and refinement of unique aircraft.  It is interesting to learn about the many failures and lessons learned during the development process - and to see interesting film footage of the flights of the aircraft.  I find the "Sailplanes" series of books by Martin Simons to be similar to the "Wings" programs because they allow the reader to travel back in time to learn about the development of sailplanes over the years.  The books are created for anyone that is interested in sailplanes.  Martin created hundreds of scale line-art drawings of the sailplanes that show the elegant lines and design details of the aircraft.  The drawings are detailed enough to be used by modelers to create accurate scale models.  I have just finished reading all 3 'Sailplanes' books from cover to cover.  I thoroughly enjoyed every page.  I thought I had previously seen photos and details on most of the sailplanes in the world - boy was I wrong!  I learned of many obscure and interesting sailplanes from manufacturers and private builders around the world.  I especially enjoyed the overview information found in the Preface and Introduction sections at the beginning of each book.  The books are well organized so that they can be used as a reference when looking for information on any rare or not-so-rare sailplane.  The books are not inexpensive, but they are worth every penny.

About the Author
Martin Simons has been involved in gliding for more than fifty years.  With the Gold C badge and two diamonds, he has flown about one hundred different types of sailplanes, including twenty of those described in this work.  He is also a keen model sailplane designer, builder and flier. 

English by birth he lives in Adelaide, South Australia, with dual citizenship.  In addition to the two volumes 'Sailplanes', (1945 - 1965, & 1965 - 2000) his earlier books include 'Slingsby Sailplanes', a standard reference on the British glider manufacturing company, and he collaborated with Paul Schweizer to produce 'Sailplanes by Schweizer', a companion book about the leading American manufacturer.  He wrote 'Model Aircraft Aerodynamics', the only work of its kind in the English language, now in its fourth edition, and a number of other books and a great many articles, not all of them about aviation.