These are the weekend fliers who have fun around the airport, make some cross-country flights and enter local contests.

"[5]Schweizer Aircraft originally proposed the idea of a simple, inexpensive, one-design class sailplane at the 1945 Motorless Flight Conference.

At that time the Schweizer SGS 1-23 was the only sailplane in production in the United States and demand for it had dropped off, due to its high price.

At the same time the number of people participating in soaring had increased and there was a clear market for a low cost sailplane.

He wrote: The true measure of pilot ability and experience is usually shown by his final standing in a contest.

Performance testing showed that there is very little difference between the models and that the one-design concept has been maintained throughout the aircraft's production life.

[9] The 1-26 is used by many soaring clubs in the United States and is often the first single place glider that a student flies immediately after solo, often coming from a Schweizer 2-33 two-seat trainer.

[9] The 1-26 has been seen as a challenging aircraft to set records in and to achieve FAI soaring badges, given its low glide performance.