Glide Path is a novel by Arthur C. Clarke, published in 1963. Clarke's only non-science fiction novel, it is set during World War II, and tells a fictionalized version of the development of the radar-based ground-controlled approach (called "ground-controlled descent" in the novel) aircraft landing system, and includes a character modeled on Luis Alvarez, who developed this system. It is based on Clarke's own wartime service with the Royal Air Force, during which he worked on the GCA project.
Famous quotes containing the words glide and/or path:
“We perceive no charms that are not sharpened, puffed out, and inflated by artifice. Those which glide along naturally and simply easily escape a sight so gross as ours.”
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592)
“I love to weigh, to settle, to gravitate toward that which most strongly and rightfully attracts me;Mnot hang by the beam of the scale and try to weigh less,—not suppose a case, but take the case that is; to travel the only path I can, and that on which no power can resist me. It affords me no satisfaction to commence to spring an arch before I have got a solid foundation.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)