Gliding is a recreational activity and competitive sport in which pilots fly unpowered aircraft known as gliders (sailplanes) using rising air to gain altitude or speed. The word soaring is also used for the sport. There are separate articles on the related sports of hang gliding and paragliding.

When soaring conditions are good enough, experienced pilots can fly hundreds of kilometres before returning to their home airfields, and occasionally flights over 1,000 kilometres are made. However, if the weather deteriorates, they may need to land elsewhere, but motorglider pilots can avoid this by starting an engine.

While many glider pilots merely enjoy the sense of achievement, some competitive pilots fly in races around pre-defined courses. These competitions test the pilots' abilities to make best use of local weather conditions as well as their flying skills. Local and national competitions are organized in many countries and there are also biennial World Gliding Championships.

Powered aircraft and winches are the two most common means of launching gliders. These and other methods (apart from self-launching motor-gliders) require assistance from other participants. Gliding clubs have thus been established to share airfields and equipment, train new pilots and maintain high safety standards.

History

The development of heavier-than-air flight in the half-century between Sir George Cayley's coachman in 1853 and the Wright brothers mainly involved gliders (see aviation history). However, the sport of gliding only emerged after the First World War as a result of the Treaty of Versailles, which imposed severe restrictions on the manufacture and use of single-seat powered aircraft in Germany. Thus, in the 1920s and 1930s, while aviators and aircraft makers in the rest of the world were working to improve the performance of powered aircraft, the Germans were designing, developing and flying ever more efficient gliders and discovering ways of using the natural forces in the atmosphere to make them fly farther and faster. The active support of the government ensured a ready supply of experienced aviators ready to be trained in warplane operation when the treaty was abrogated in preparation for World War II by the Third Reich.

The first German gliding competition was held at the Wasserkuppe in 1920,

During the war, civilian gliding in Europe was largely suspended. Although some military operations in WWII involved military gliders, they did not soar and so are unrelated to the sport of gliding. Nonetheless, several German fighter aces in the conflict, including Erich Hartmann, began their flight training in gliders.

Gliding did not return to the Olympics after the war, for two reasons: first, the shortage of gliders following the war; and second, the failure to agree on a single model of competition glider. (Some in the community feared doing so would hinder development of new designs.) The re-introduction of air sports such as gliding to the Olympics has been occasionally proposed by the world governing body, the FAI, but this has been rejected on the grounds of lack of public interest.