Fly This! 1931 Style

Some of the best glider soaring around can be found here in New Hampshire, especially up in the Franconia Notch region, but that pales compared to the thermals, updrafts and rotors combined with trade winds that blow in and around Kailua and Da Pali on Windward Oahu. In the early 1960s we would watch sailplanes dart around Mt. Olomana for hours, but never witnessed an all nighter like this 1931 Pali flight, a record for the time.

The guy who made this flight would a decade later be killed in the Japanese attack on the American base in the Phillipines that happened at the same time as the Pearl Harbor attacks (it was 12/8 where he was)

Excerpt:

"Shortly before 3:00 p.m., when (William) Cocke climbed into the 'Nighthawk,' he climbed into the record and history books as well. At 3:00 the cable came tight, 'Nighthawk' began to move, and although the surface winds were less than favorable, 'Nighthawk' continued to move until the next day….

"Ridge soaring low was considered to be safe enough during the daytime, but during the night it became deadly. Therefore, arrangements had been made for the Army's 64th Coast Artillery Battery to illuminate the mountains….

"The next day, on the 18th of December, 1931, Cocke became concerned that the trade wind was going to stop and decided to land. So, at 12:34 p.m., he did just that and ended a 21 hour and 34 minute flight. It was official, Lt. William A. Cocke, Jr., of San Antonio and Austin, Texas had flown a glider longer than anyone in the world. He had also flown higher than any American ever had, besting the old mark of 3130 feet, but at 3454 feet he was 176 feet too low to set a new official U.S. altitude record.

As a footnote, it might be noted that "Nighthawk" is not just an old historical glider. It is a current record holder. After holding the World and American Endurance Record for a year and a half, Cocke's World Record was eventually broken. In fact, the World Record eventually surpassed 50 hours and safety dictated that endurance be abolished as a record category. However, Cocke's American Record was never broken before the category was abolished. As a result, 60 years later (now 77 years, as this is a 1991 article), Cocke and "Nighthawk" still hold the American Endurance Record."

http://www.soaringmuseum.org/landmark/nls09/flight.html