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This is a list of gliders/sailplanes of the world, (this reference lists all gliders with references, where available)[1]
Note: Any aircraft can glide for a short time, but gliders are designed to glide for longer.
Schneider ES-60 Boomerang -- Was produced in at least two variants, one with a full-flying stabilator (Boomerang) and one with a horizontal stabilizer/rudder (Super Arrow). Only one of these gliders was imported to the United States, it was a Boomerang with the full-flying stabilator. I owned that ship for several years. Construction was of wood, with plywood sheeted leading edges, covered all over with fabric, wingtips were fiber glass. The cockpit was big, easily accommodating my 6' 5" frame with parachute, after I built a new instrument panel that was about 3 inches less tall than the original. It was sort of like sitting in a barrel with your head up in the canopy. Ailerons were actually flaperons that drooped to increase wing camber when the stick was pulled back. Flying qualities were superb -- fantastic control harmony, stable at low speed, though the flaperons did get a bit mushy just before stall. The terminal-velocity dive brakes were very effective, but when full open bathed the stabilator in turbulent air. Since the stabilator was hinged at a single point, I judged the hinge to be a component I didn't want to stress with overuse of full dive brake, so kept that to a minimum. Half deployment of dive brake was all the pilot needed, if more was needed it was due to a poor approach. Landing gear was a taildragger configuration with a spring steel tail skid. The mechanical drum brake was weak, it seemed like half the braking came from getting the skid on the ground. Flying it in Colorado State, USA, I found that every time I took it out of the trailer I could fly it for a couple of hours and then it would rain -- not good for a wood and fabric glider, so I flew it less and less. I had purchased it from a partnership at AirSailing in Nevada (a good place for a wood ship). When I left Colorado in the economic downturn of 1989-1990, I sold it to a club in Rifle, Colorado, who later sold it to a party that trailered it where water from an adjacent roof poured on it and infiltrated one wing. At the Arvin Remembrance Ceremony in 2000, I met a gentleman who had purchased the "Boomer" and had rebuilt the damaged wing. I hope it is flying often.
