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.
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 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 Recipients of the International Gliding Commission award, from 1938 to present, include: awardyearrecipientnationalitynotes1938Tadeusz Góra Polandfor a goal flight of 1948Lt. Per-Axel Persson Sweden1949John C. Robinson United States1950William S. Ivans United States1951Marcelle Choisnet-Gohard France1952Charles Atger France1953Victor M. Iltchenko USSRflight of , a world two-seater record, from Moscow to Stalingrad1954Philip A. Wills United Kingdom1955Dr. Joachim Küttner Germany1956Dr. Paul B. MacCready Jr. United States1957Don Luis Vicente Juez Gomez Spain1958Wolf Hirth Germany1959Richard E. Schreder United States1960Pelagia Majewska Poland1961Adolph 'Pirat' Gehriger Switzerland1962Paul F. Bikle United States1963Heinz Huth Germany1964Alvin H. Parker United States1965Edward Makula Poland1966Anne Burns United Kingdom1967Lennart Stahlfors Sweden1968Alejo Williamson Chile1969Eric Nessler France1970Hans-Werner Grosse Germany1971Karl H. Striedieck United States1972Jan Wróblewski Polandtwice World Champion, 1965 Open and 1972 Standard Class1973Mrs. Ann Welch United Kingdom1974August Hug Switzerland1975Adela Dankowska Polandfor her world records & winning the 1975 International Women's Gliding Competition1976Louis A. de Lange Netherlands1977George B. Moffat, Jr. United States1978Helmut Reichmann Germany1980Hans Wolf Austria1981George Lee United KingdomWorld gliding champion on three consecutive occasions1982Hans Nietlispach Switzerland1984C.E. Wallington Australia1985Sholto Hamilton 'Dick' Georgeson New Zealand1986Maj. Richard L. Johnson United States1987Juhani Horma Finland1988Ingo Renner Australia1990Fred Weinholtz Germany1991Raymond W. Lynskey New Zealand1992Franciszek Kępka Poland1993Bernald S. Smith United States1994Terrence Raymond Delore New Zealand1995Tor Johannessen Norway1997Dr. Manfred Reinhardt Germany1998Oran Nicks United States1999Hana Zejdová Czech Republic2000Klaus Ohlmann Germany2001James M. Payne United States2002John Hamish Roake New Zealand2003Prof. Ing. Piero Morelli Italy2004Janusz Centka Poland2005Ian Strachan United Kingdom2006Alan Patching Australia2007Derek Piggott United Kingdom2008Roland Stuck France2009Ross Macintyre New Zealand2010Reiner Rose Germany2011Giorgio Galetto Italy2012Bob Henderson New Zealand2014not awarded—2015Loek Boermans Netherlands2016Rainer Wienzek Germany2017Patrick Pauwels Belgium2018not awarded—2019Richard 'Dick' Bradley South Africa2020Gisela Weinreich Germany2021Eric Mozer United States2022not awarded—2023Jana 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 (1× gold, 3× silver and 6× bronze)2024Tadeáš Wala Slovakia2025not awarded—
See also
List of aviation awards
References