The ABC was designed to compete in the 1937 Eaton Design Contest held in conjunction with the 8th US National Gliding Championships. This competition was open to any new American glider design that had not been flown at a previous National Championship. The rules required drawings and stress analysis data to be presented with the completed aircraft. The intention was that the winning design would be made available as drawings and kits for amateur construction and that Bureau of Air Commerce design approval would be eventually obtained as well.[1]
The winners of the contest and the cash prizes won were:[1]
The ABC was a development of the earlier short-span Midwest MU-1, it had a two-spar two-strut wooden wing and a fabric covered steel tube fuselage and tail.[2]
The ABC was to be available for homebuilding but only four were built before the Second World War. In 1942 one glider was used with the designation TG-16 at the USAAC glider training school in Mobile, Alabama.[2]
^ abSchweizer, Paul A: Wings Like Eagles, The Story of Soaring in the United States, pages 55-57. Smithsonian Institution Press, 1988. ISBN0-87474-828-3
United States
