higher efficiency than retrofitted winglets, with drag less than the theoretical minimum for a fully elliptical wing of the same span. Scimitar sailplane Peter Masak was the designer and builder of the Scimitar sailplane prototype, based on the Schempp-Hirth Ventus. It employed many of his design modifications, including a completely new wing and tailplane. The composite wing used a flexible S-glass torsion box spar, with stiff kevlar skins. "We get superior twist characteristics as a function of speed," Masak claimed. And the soft bending "reduces the local angle of attack during gusts to better keep the airfoil in the laminar-flow range." The wing chord was optimized continuously along the entire span, dispensing with typical straight-tapered sections. It won the Design News magazine Unique Airplane design contest in 1995. The Scimitar featured an acoustic boundary layer flow control system to prevent laminar boundary layer flow separation, using a smaller, more highly cambered airfoil with a greater lift coefficient. "It's always good to have laminar flow," says Masak, "but you'd rather have turbulent attached flow than laminar separation." He flew a later version of this glider, with factory built Ventus 2 wings, in the 2004 U.S. 15 Meter Nationals gliding competition being held at Mifflin County Airport, the same contest he won 11 years earlier. While flying a competition task, he crashed in a syncline fold in the Tussey Mountain ridge, a few miles south of the village of Alexandria, Pennsylvania at . He was attempting to cross the ridge line upwind, and encountered sinking air and turbulence in the lee of the mountain crest, resulting in an inadvertent stall/spin. The crash was not survivable, and he was killed on impact. In his glider, he installed an Emergency Locator Transmitter (ELT), although it was not required. The wreckage was found in less than 24 hours, even though it was in steep terrain in a remote forested water-shed area, not visible from the air. As a result of this accident, and the subsequent search and rescue, ELT's are now required in many gliding competitions. Soaring accomplishments He earned FAI 1000 km diploma number 82 on April 30, 1987 by flying 1006.99 km in a Schleicher ASW 20A from Ridge Soaring Gliderport. The Soaring Society of America awarded him the Exceptional Achievement Award in 1995. Publications In 1991, he produced a booklet titled Performance Enhancement of Modern Sailplanes which described not just the theory,