Lilienthal Gliding Medal

Lilienthal Gliding Medal – the highest soaring award in the world, established by Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) in 1938, and is given at the annual Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) General Conference.[1]

Lilienthal Gliding Medal
Obverse of the Lilienthal Medal
Awarded forRemarkable performance in gliding, or eminent services to the sport of gliding over a long period of time
CountryWorldwide
Presented byFédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI)
First awarded1938
Last awardedcurrent
WebsiteFAI official site
Reverse of the Lilienthal Medal awarded to Tadeusz Góra

It was created in honour of Otto Lilienthal, a German pioneer of human aviation. It aims "to reward a particularly remarkable performance in gliding, or eminent services to the sport of gliding over a long period of time." The actual Lilienthal Medal was designed by Austrian artist Josef Humplik.

The first winner of the Lilienthal Gliding Medal in the world was Tadeusz Góra for his record-breaking 577.8 kilometres (359.0 miles; 312.0 nautical miles) flight on 18 May 1938, glider PWS-101 from Bezmiechowa to Soleczniki (near Vilnius).

The Medal is awarded by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale via vote of the delegates to the International Gliding Commission at the annual Plenary in March. In 2012, it was decided to end the practice of awarding the Medal for accomplishments of the previous calendar year, and to associate the Medal with the year in which the recipient is determined. Consequently, the year 2013 was not awarded, therefore does not appear in the table below.

Recipients

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Recipients of the International Gliding Commission award, from 1938 to present, include:[2]

award
year
recipient nationality notes
1938 Tadeusz Góra   Poland for a goal flight of 577.8 kilometres (359.0 miles; 312.0 nautical miles)
1948 Lt. Per-Axel Persson   Sweden
1949 John C. Robinson   United States
1950 William S. Ivans   United States
1951 Marcelle Choisnet-Gohard   France
1952 Charles Atger   France
1953 Victor M. Iltchenko   USSR flight of 520 miles (450 nautical miles; 840 kilometres), a world two-seater record, from Moscow to Stalingrad[3]
1954 Philip A. Wills   United Kingdom
1955 Dr. Joachim Küttner   Germany
1956 Dr. Paul B. MacCready Jr.   United States
1957 Don Luis Vicente Juez Gomez   Spain
1958 Wolf Hirth   Germany
1959 Richard E. Schreder   United States
1960 Pelagia Majewska   Poland
1961 Adolph 'Pirat' Gehriger   Switzerland
1962 Paul F. Bikle   United States
1963 Heinz Huth   Germany
1964 Alvin H. Parker   United States
1965 Edward Makula   Poland
1966 Anne Burns   United Kingdom
1967 Lennart Stahlfors   Sweden
1968 Alejo Williamson   Chile
1969 Eric Nessler   France
1970 Hans-Werner Grosse   Germany
1971 Karl H. Striedieck   United States
1972 Jan Wróblewski   Poland twice World Champion, 1965 Open and 1972 Standard Class
1973 Mrs. Ann Welch   United Kingdom
1974 August Hug   Switzerland
1975 Adela Dankowska   Poland for her world records & winning the 1975 International Women's Gliding Competition
1976 Louis A. de Lange   Netherlands
1977 George B. Moffat, Jr.   United States
1978 Helmut Reichmann   Germany
1980 Hans Wolf   Austria
1981 George Lee   United Kingdom World gliding champion on three consecutive occasions
1982 Hans Nietlispach   Switzerland
1984 C.E. Wallington   Australia
1985 Sholto Hamilton 'Dick' Georgeson   New Zealand
1986 Maj. Richard L. Johnson   United States
1987 Juhani Horma   Finland
1988 Ingo Renner   Australia
1990 Fred Weinholtz   Germany
1991 Raymond W. Lynskey   New Zealand
1992 Franciszek Kępka   Poland
1993 Bernald S. Smith   United States
1994 Terrence Raymond Delore   New Zealand
1995 Tor Johannessen   Norway
1997 Dr. Manfred Reinhardt   Germany
1998 Oran Nicks   United States
1999 Hana Zejdová   Czech Republic
2000 Klaus Ohlmann   Germany
2001 James M. Payne   United States
2002 John Hamish Roake   New Zealand
2003 Prof. Ing. Piero Morelli   Italy
2004 Janusz Centka   Poland
2005 Ian Strachan   United Kingdom
2006 Alan Patching   Australia
2007 Derek Piggott   United Kingdom
2008 Roland Stuck   France
2009 Ross Macintyre   New Zealand
2010 Reiner Rose   Germany
2011 Giorgio Galetto[4]   Italy
2012 Bob Henderson   New Zealand
2014 not awarded
2015 Loek Boermans   Netherlands
2016 Rainer Wienzek   Germany
2017 Patrick Pauwels   Belgium
2018 not awarded
2019 Richard 'Dick' Bradley   South Africa
2020 Gisela Weinreich   Germany
2021 Eric Mozer   United States
2022 not awarded
2023 Jana Vepřeková   Czech Republic - in the history of women's world sailing, she has the largest number of participations at the WC and EC, she won a medal at every 2nd

- 10 medals from top world and European competitions (1x gold, 3x silver and 6x bronze)

2024 Tadeáš Wala   Slovakia

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "SSA Awards and SSA Recognized Awards - International Awards". www.SSA.org. Soaring Society of America. Retrieved 22 February 2011.
  2. ^ "FAI Gliding Commission (IGC) Awards". www.FAI.org. Fédération Aéronautique Internationale. 3 August 2017. Retrieved 28 December 2021.
  3. ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-11-27. Retrieved 2016-11-26.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  4. ^ "Galetto awarded with the Lilienthal Gliding Medal". www.FAI.org. Fédération Aéronautique Internationale. 11 July 2017. Retrieved 21 August 2019.