Archive
The S&G website is home to more than 85 years of UK gliding publication history.
In 2005, the late Peter Redshaw embarked upon a project to scan a nearly complete set of UK gliding magazines which had been gifted by his family to the Lakes Gliding Club. The project soon evolved into one with the aim of creating an electronic archive of all UK gliding magazines and all out of print UK gliding books and to make these available as a set of professionally scanned publication.
Peter was joined by the late Wally Kahn, who held the only known complete set of magazines as well as a major collection of gliding books.
The enthusiasm of the pair and their active fundraising has resulted in this archive that is now available on this site to all gliding enthusiasts. Currently, the archive holds all books from Wally’s collection which are either out of copyright or for which the copyright holders have granted permission, along with 760 magazines:
- Sailplane and Glider from 1930 to 1955 (300)
- Gliding from 1950 to 1955 (22)
- Sailplane and Gliding from 1955 to 2017 (338)
- Soaring Pilot from 1973 to 1974 (4)
- VGC News from 1973 to 2003 (108)
It is intended to keep all future editions of Sailplane & Gliding in the digital archive with the exception of the most recent 5 years.
There is a tremendous amount of valuable information about gliding in both the UK and worldwide in these magazines and it is important this should not be lost. Wally subsequently donated his collection to the BGA and this is available for reference at the BGA headquarters in Leicester.
We are grateful for the support from the people who made donations to help turn Peter and Wally’s dream of an electronic library into reality. Their names and clubs are on a “Roll of Honour” in the Wally Kahn Library at the BGA headquarters.
The electronic library is fully searchable, by edition and by content. It is provided freely for non-commercial use and copies of documents may be printed for personal use only. Permission for any other use must be sought from the British Gliding Association.
Wally Kahn and Peter Redshaw made every effort to contact the copyright holder(s) of books still in copyright to seek approval to use copyrighted material. If any inadvertent breach of copyright has been made by the inclusion of books in the archive, please would the copyright owner contact us and we will be pleased to remove any offending item.
