Recent MIT grad Lloyd Licher wrote Soaring about the MIT Glider Club's towplane: "It's a modified J-3 Cub, with a 4-bladed low pitch prop through a V-belt reduction. [Its] exhaust ejector-muffler [is very] quiet. [It's] only good for 60-70 m.p.h., a clunker by power standards, but ideal for us. It has Helio take-off. Professor Koppen did the modifications. He also designed the Helioplane. I work for Helio (plug)." Meanwhile, SSA wanted, and needed, to grow, and knew it wouldn't be easy. SSA's past President EJ. Reeves (Hall of Fame 1970) was blunt: "There are probably fewer than a dozen people in the U.S. who have any interest whatever in motorless flight, who are not [already] members of SSA."This entire issue was a resolute call to the 1,000 SSA members to proselytize. Spoiler Alert! They didn't! Membership stagnated until 1957, when SSA leadership took action. Their best move was to hire Lloyd Licher (HoF 1982) as its first Executive Secretary (later, Director). In his 20 years with SSA, membership helioed from 1,000 to 14,000!
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