Octave Chanute could be described as the father of aviation. Chanute provided significant personal financial assistance to those interested in learning to fly or developing a new flying machine. It is reported that Chanute spent about $10,000 of his own personal money in five years to support the development of flying gliders. For comparison, at this time a supervisor in the engineering field at the Smithsonian Institution made $150/month (or $1,800/year). Chanute knew that no pecuniary profit could be made, but he also knew that this money given might help foster the sport he so much enjoyed.

The biplane glider, designed by Chanute and members of his team in 1896, became the basis for future aeronautical development. This primitive but stable design helped many pilots get off the ground to safely experience the sport of gliding (and soaring?).

Chanute's team built several flying machines. In the summer of 1896 more was learned about the sport than in the past years of theoretical thinking. Members of the group not only experienced gliding, but they also did some rudimentary ridge soaring (quartering) along the sand dunes, and watched the birds soaring above them.

There was a pair of eagles, living in the top of a dead tree about two miles from our tent, that came almost daily to show us how such wind effects are overcome and utilized. The birds swept in, circled overhead on pulseless wings, and rose high up in the air. . . . Although we thought the action was clearly automatic, our teachers were too far off to show us just how it was done, and we had to experiment for ourselves (McClure Magazine, Jun 1900).

Chanute was always willing to share his expertise and experiences in flying (even though he never actually flew himself), inviting amateurs to repeat and to improve upon the performances. Thus he contributed immensely to the actual growth of the sport of gliding (and soaring) in the United States.

Chanute felt that he was too old to fly by himself, but he kept meticulous track of and evaluated all data during his group's flight experiments. Afterward, he continued to write and lecture, now knowing what actual flight was all about.

Gliding is the most delightful sport anyone could attempt who knew how to ride the bicycle, he said.

Anyone interested in aeronautics normally wrote to Chanute, who willingly gave advice and made suggestions. In 1899, two brothers from Dayton wrote to the Smithsonian Institution, asking for information. Several books and pamphlets were sent to them ($5.50 was spent), including Chanute's Progress in Flying Machines. They, too, contacted Chanute. In December 1903, they succeeded in powered, controlled flight, and they always remembered that Chanute was available for discussion.

The story of the TG-1A begins with the Cinema sailplane, which in turn dates from my old model building days in Hollywood, and in particular with a model airplane I built to order, but for which I was never paid.

That was in 1935, when I was still in high school. I had started building and selling model planes as an easy way of increasing my spending money, and in my senior high school year opened a model shop. One of my customers, a glider pilot, let a small account drag on to long to suit me, and finally offered to square it by teaching me to fly his glider.

Thus did Stan Corcoran start his career in aviation. He left his model building business and switched to full scale sailplanes with the introduction of the Cinema I in 1938.

I took the Cinema I to Elmira in 1938 while still a novice at soaring and cross-country flying. My first flight was 183 miles, much better than I had dared hope. My next two flights were 146 and 202 miles respectively, for an average of 177 miles that year.

The Frankfort Sailplane Company was organized in 1939 and moved to Joliet, Illinois in 1940, where the development of the Cinema II began. This ship was the prototype of the TG-1A, which we developed for the Army Air Forces. Our objective was to produce a two-place sailplane which would be suitable for dual and solo instructions, and give performance comparable to the Cinema I.

The TG-1A was one of the many gliders used the the Army Air Force to train glider pilots during World War II.

Harold holds the Illinois state record for the longest straight line flight in a sailplane. This record of 436 miles was set in 1962.

Richard 'Dick' Hawker was a member of the Chicago Glider Club for over 40 years.

In 1896 Herring helped Chanute build a gliding machine employing the technique of trusses which Chanute had used successfully in the design of railroad bridges.

With this machine, Herring and Avery were making repeated flights, 200–300 ft in length. For the moment, it was the most successful heavier–than–air flying machine in the world and proved to be a key step on the road to the invention of the airplane. After Lilienthal's death, Chanute's new design was the most advanced glider of the time, the longest gliding flights to date were made in this machine and both Herring and Avery made longer duration flights than anyone else in the world. They were the world's highest time glider pilots.