Early aviators used to call gliding 'Volplaning'
Does anyone know when the change was made?
And who/when coined the word 'Joystick'?
I think 'Cockpit' came from the Navy.
Wolf11
2nd Jun 2004, 15:20
Well the French gliding term is still vol a voile with them calling gliders Planeur
I know voiler or something means Thief in France, cos I once had a strange phonecall with a B&B owner trying to explain I was coming to france to go gliding and he thought I was telling him I was an English Thief:eek:
Bre901
4th Jun 2004, 11:55
Wolf11
You are perfectly right, "vol à voile" (litt : sail flying) means gliding. A glider pilot is either called "pilote de planeur" (that's what's printed on my licence booklet) or "vélivole".
The french noun is "vol", which means both flight or flying and robbery. The corresponding verb is "voler", which means both "to fly" and "to rob".
However, "voleur" is always a thief.
The verb "planer" means "to glide".
"volplaning" comes from "vol plané" (litt: "gliding flight")(see here (http://www.bartleby.com/61/15/V0141500.html))
The joystick was invented by Robert Esnault-Pelterie in 1907, but I doubt he called it joystick, as he was French. The original name is "manche à balai" (litt : broomstick). (see here (http://www.ctie.monash.edu.au/hargrave/rep.html) )
HTH