In article .net,
Hilton wrote:
Don Hammer wrote:
Gliders have been using very long and thin wings made of glass and
carbon for at least 25 years. Never heard of one having a wing
failure.

There was a 'high profile' accidnet in Minden a few years ago. Two
well-known pilots I believe. I'm sure a quick search on ntsb.gov will show
it.

Here it the NTSB report on that one:

http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?e...12X19310&key=1

The basic summary is the pilots over controlled recovering from a
spin. One of the pilots was the head of the National Air and Space
Museum and a high time fighter pilot.

We happened to have some USAF pilots visiting our CAP squadron soon
after this accident, and there was an interesting discussion between
a local glider CFI and the USAF guys. The amount of control movement
needed in a glider is much less then in a fighter, and the CFI
speculated at the time that the pilot over controlled it, causing
the structural failure. That is pretty much what the NTSB found.

The material the wing was made of made no difference in this accident.
The aircraft exceeded design loads, and failed.

John
--
John Clear - http://www.clear-prop.org/