Friday, October 17, 2008

Without Visible Means of Support



In his quirky, ramshackle, and very human book on the history of gliding aviation (I would call it "A Folk History of Aviation"), Richard Miller wrote that while powered aviation might best describe the technicalities of flight, "gliding is its eloquence."

Above, a unique (hair-raising!) way to launch; take-off of the flying machine of one Mr. Cloyd Artman, who, in the 1930's, built and tested his own gliders in the high deserts of the Pacific Northwest. Surprisingly, he survived these experiments and had a long gliding career.

The book is "Without Visible Means of Support" by Richard Miller (1967).

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Mr. Cloyd Artman did not have a "long gliding career" - he and Frank See died in their new two-man glider after crashing into the Snake River near Steptoe Butte on April 11, 1937. My mother was good friends with Cloyd and attended Oroville High School with him.

Cameron McPherson Smith said...

Thank you for your correction. I wrote based on Miller's book, and did not know that Artman died in 1937. Cheers Cameron M. Smith