Soaring Into History: Al Parker’s Record-Breaking Flight in the Sisu Sailplane

An extraordinary thing happened 60 years ago today on July 31, 1964. Al Parker flew from Odessa, Texas, to Kimball, Nebraska, in the Sisu (‘see-soo’) sailplane, which is on display at the National Air and Space Museum's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center. It was the first time anyone had flown a motorless aircraft more than 621 miles (1,000 km) nonstop.

Designed by Leonard A. Niemi, the Sisu is one of the most successful American sailplanes ever flown. Three pilots (John Ryan in 1962, Dean Svec in 1965, and A. J. Smith in 1967) have won the United States National Soaring Championships flying a Sisu. In 1967, Bill Ivans set a national speed record flying a Sisu 1A at El Mirage, California, by skimming across the desert at 84 mph (135 kph) over a 62-mile (100-kilometer) triangular course.

Niemi started developing the Sisu 1 in 1952. He had spent four years learning the aircraft mechanics trade while attending a technical high school in Buffalo, New York, then worked at Bell Aircraft Corporation and the Curtiss-Wright Corporation. After a stint in the U. S. Army, Niemi earned a B. S. in aeronautical engineering at the University of Michigan. He also spent four years performing stress analysis at Bell Helicopter. Niemi’s family came from Finland, and he chose to name his sailplane the Sisu, a popular Finnish word. According to author Aini Rajanen in his book Of Finnish Ways, the word sisu “refers not to the courage of optimism, but to a concept of life that says, 'I may not win, but I will give up my life gladly for what I believe.' … Sisu is the only word for the Finns' strongest national characteristic.”

Niemi paid careful attention to eliminating parasite drag when laying out the Sisu. He opted for a vee-tail, retractable tow hook and main wheel, and swept-forward wings shaped to a 653-418 laminar-flow airfoil. He swept the wings forward to ensure that the ailerons, hinged just inboard of each wingtip, continued to bite the air and provide the pilot control during a stall. A more common design technique was to twist the wings, but this would have generated unacceptable drag. The wing surfaces had to be extremely smooth to maintain laminar-flow over a broad speed range and Niemi took great care in this area.

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The first flight in 1958 was so successful that Neimi decided not to sell plans or kits but to modify the design for production as a finished, ready-to-fly sailplane. He set up the Arlington Aircraft Company in the city of the same name located about halfway between Ft. Worth and Dallas, Texas. Construction began on the first four sailplanes in 1960. Pilots quickly bought them all but production costs surpassed profits and Neimi had to sell the project to Philip J. Baugh, a retired Air Force pilot and soaring enthusiast from Charlotte, North Carolina. Baugh and Niemi moved the factory to Greenville, South Carolina, in 1963. Baugh underwrote production of six more Sisu sailplanes but profits never covered expenditures and metalsmiths and technicians finished the tenth and last Sisu 1A in 1965. Including the prototype, 11 Sisu sailplanes were built.

Neimi took the second Sisu built (currently on display at the Udvar-Hazy Center) into the air for its first flight on May 1, 1963. Less than two weeks later, John J. Randall of Coral Gables, Florida, bought the sailplane. After several flights, Randall lent the airplane to Dr. Cornish at Mississippi State University in Starkville. Cornish teamed with test pilot Sean Roberts and the two men conducted flight tests, and measured and analyzed the Sisu's flight performance. As a result of their analysis, they further refined the surface contours on this Sisu.

On July 21, 1963, Alvin H. Parker bought Randall's Sisu for $9,700. Parker was 45 years old and the father of three sons. He worked in the oil business and operated a flight school and a Schweizer sailplane dealership in Odessa, Texas. Parker had lived in West Texas all his life, except for a stint in the U.S. Army during World War II when he saw combat as a tanker in the First Armored Division fighting in North Africa and Italy. Parker had flown about 5,000 hours in several different aircraft by the time he was ready to attempt the record flight in the Sisu.

Upon touching down at Kimball, Nebraska, at about 8:20 pm on July 31, 1964, Parker "struggled out of the Sisu after ten and one-half hours in the air and looked around for landing witnesses. There was no one in sight - just the [airport] rotating beacon, the runway lights, and I." This quiet finish to a spectacular flight did not prepare Parker for the accolades that poured in from around the world. Soaring magazine called it the "Soaring Story of the Year - U.S. First to Break 1000 Kilometers." Joseph Lincoln had called this milestone "for a good many years …the soaring pilot's four-minute mile on both sides of the Atlantic" in his soaring anthology, On Quiet Wings, published in 1972.

In August 1967, Parker sold the Sisu to Philip J. Baugh and then purchased another so that Baugh could donate the record-setting Sisu to the Smithsonian Institution. On July 12, 1966, at a ceremony atop Harris Hill close to Elmira, New York, the birthplace of American competitive soaring, Baugh formally presented the Sisu 1A, registered N1100Z, to the Smithsonian. The airplane was still equipped with the same instruments, radio, oxygen system, and other equipment that it carried during Parker’s 1964 flight.