Glider may refer to:

Aircraft and transport

Aircraft

Glider (aircraft) A glider is a fixed-wing aircraft that is supported in flight by the dynamic reaction of the air against its lifting surfaces, and whose free flight does not depend on an engine. Most gliders do not have an engine, although motor-gliders have ...

, heavier-than-air aircraft primarily intended for unpowered flight **

Glider (sailplane) A glider or sailplane is a type of glider aircraft used in the leisure activity and sport of gliding (also called soaring). This unpowered aircraft can use naturally occurring currents of rising air in the atmosphere to gain altitude. Sailpla ...

, a rigid-winged glider aircraft with an undercarriage, used in the sport of gliding **

Military glider Military gliders (an offshoot of common gliders) have been used by the militaries of various countries for carrying troops (glider infantry) and heavy equipment to a combat zone, mainly during the Second World War. These engineless aircraft were ...

, used to transport combat troops and equipment to a combat zone **

Motor glider A motor glider is a fixed-wing aircraft that can be flown with or without engine power. The FAI Gliding Commission Sporting Code definition is: a fixed-wing aerodyne equipped with a means of propulsion (MoP), capable of sustained soaring flight ...

, a glider with a power source to generate thrust **

Hang glider Hang gliding is an air sport or recreational activity in which a pilot flies a light, non-motorised foot-launched heavier-than-air aircraft called a hang glider. Most modern hang gliders are made of an aluminium alloy or composite frame covered ...

, foot-launched, framed fabric wing, usually used for recreation **

Paraglider Paragliding is the recreational and competitive adventure sport of flying paragliders: lightweight, free-flying, foot-launched glider aircraft with no rigid primary structure. The pilot sits in a harness or lies supine in a cocoon-like 'po ...

, foot-launched, unframed fabric wing, usually used for recreation **

Rocket glider A rocket-powered aircraft or rocket plane is an aircraft that uses a rocket engine for propulsion, sometimes in addition to airbreathing jet engines. Rocket planes can achieve much higher speeds than similarly sized jet aircraft, but typicall ...

, a rocket propelled aircraft that routinely lands as a glider **

Walkalong glider A walkalong glider is a lightweight, slow-flying model aircraft designed to be kept aloft by controllable slope soaring in the rising air generated by the pilot who walks along with the glider as it flies, usually holding a paddle. Hands or even ...

, a model glider with updraft generated by a person walking behind **

Paper glider A paper plane (also known as a paper airplane in American English or paper aeroplane in British English) is a toy aircraft, usually a glider made out of single folded sheet of paper or paperboard. A simple nose-heavy paper plane, thrown like ...

, a model or toy glider made out of paper *

Gimli Glider Air Canada Flight 143, commonly known as the Gimli Glider, was a Canadian scheduled domestic passenger flight between Montreal and Edmonton that ran out of fuel on Saturday, July 23, 1983, at an altitude of , midway through the fligh ...

, an Air Canada 767 which glided to a successful landing after running out of fuel in 1983

Other transport

Glider (automobiles) In the United States, with regard to automobiles, a glider is a vehicle without a powertrain (especially without an engine). Gliders are generally sold as unused car bodies, but a second-hand car may also be stripped of its powertrain and sold as ...

, a vehicle without a powertrain *

Glider (Belfast) Glider is a bus rapid transit system in Belfast, Northern Ireland, designed to improve the efficiency of mass transit in the city by connecting East and West Belfast and the Titanic Quarter via the city centre. The service is operated by Transl ...

, a bus rapid transit system in Belfast, Northern Ireland *

Underwater glider An underwater glider is a type of autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) that employs variable-buoyancy propulsion instead of traditional propellers or thrusters. It employs variable buoyancy in a similar way to a profiling float, but unlike a flo ...

, a submarine propelled by changing buoyancy

Animals

* There are at least eight marsupial mammals with the name "glider". They are in two families within the suborder

Phalangeriformes Phalangeriformes is a paraphyletic suborder of about 70 species of small to medium-sized arboreal marsupials native to Australia, New Guinea, and Sulawesi. The species are commonly known as possums, gliders, and cuscus. The common name "possum ...

Greater glider The greater gliders are three species of large gliding marsupials in the genus ''Petauroides'', all of which are found in eastern Australia. Until 2020 they were considered to be one species, '' Petauroides volans''. In 2020 morphological and gen ...

, ''Petauroides volans'' **

Feathertail glider The feathertail glider (''Acrobates pygmaeus''), also known as the pygmy gliding possum, pygmy glider, pygmy phalanger, flying phalanger and flying mouse, is a species of marsupial native to eastern Australia. It is the world's smallest gliding ...

or pygmy gliding possum, ''Acrobates pygmaeus'' **

Biak glider The Biak glider (''Petaurus biacensis'') is a species of marsupial in the family Petauridae. It is endemic to the Schouten Islands in the western region of Papua Province, Indonesia. It was formerly considered to be a subspecies of ''Petaurus br ...

, ''Petaurus biacensis'' ** Mahogany glider, ''Petaurus gracilis'' **

Northern glider The northern glider (''Petaurus abidi'') is a species of marsupial in the family Petauridae. It is endemic to Papua New Guinea, becoming known to science in 1981 after being discovered in the Torricelli Mountains. This species has been found in ...

, ''Petaurus abidi'' **

Squirrel glider The squirrel glider (''Petaurus norfolcensis'') is a nocturnal gliding possum. The squirrel glider is one of the wrist-winged gliders of the genus '' Petaurus''. Habitat This species' home range extends from Bordertown near the South Australia ...

, ''Petaurus norfolcensis'' **

Sugar glider The sugar glider (''Petaurus breviceps'') is a small, omnivorous, arboreal, and nocturnal gliding possum belonging to the marsupial infraclass. The common name refers to its predilection for sugary foods such as sap and nectar and its ability ...

, ''Petaurus breviceps'' **

Yellow-bellied glider The yellow-bellied glider (''Petaurus australis''), also known as the fluffy glider, is an arboreal and nocturnal gliding possum that lives in native eucalypt forests in eastern Australia, from northern Queensland south to Victoria. Habitat ...

or fluffy glider, ''Petaurus australis''

Computing and video games

Glider (bot) Glider, also known as WoWGlider or MMOGlider, was a bot created by MDY Industries, which interoperated with ''World of Warcraft''. Glider automated and simplified actions by the user through the use of scripting to perform repetitive tasks while ...

, an Internet bot for automating ''World of Warcraft'' gameplay *

Glider (Conway's Life) The glider is a pattern that travels across the board in Conway's Game of Life. It was first discovered by Richard K. Guy in 1969, while John Conway's group was attempting to track the evolution of the R-pentomino. Gliders are the smallest sp ...

, a pattern in Conway's Game of Life, also used as a hacker emblem * ''Glider'' (video game), a 1988 Apple Macintosh game by John Calhoun

Music

Glider (band) Glider is a 4 piece jazz-rock combo created by Jim Bogios and David Immergluck - both members of Counting Crows. The band also includes bass player Yoshi Sako (Beatropolis) and Danny Eisenberg (Acacia Collective, Ryan Adams Band) on the Hammond B ...

, a band featuring members of Counting Crows * ''Glider'' (The Sight Below album), 2008 * ''Glider'' (Tokio album) or the title song, 2003 * ''Glider'' (EP) or the title song, by My Bloody Valentine, 1990 * "Glider" (Boyfriend song), 2016 * "Glider", a song by Tycho from ''

Epoch In chronology and periodization, an epoch or reference epoch is an instant in time chosen as the origin of a particular calendar era. The "epoch" serves as a reference point from which time is measured. The moment of epoch is usually decided by ...

'', 2016

Other uses

Glider (furniture) A glider or platform rocker is a type of rocking chair that moves as a swing seat, where the entire frame consists of a seat attached to the base by means of a double-rocker four-bar linkage. The non-parallel suspension arms of the linkage cause ...

, a type of swinging seat * Gliders (''Elfquest''), a fictional tribe of elves in the comic book series ''Elfquest'' *

Australia women's national wheelchair basketball team The Australia women's national wheelchair basketball team is the women's wheelchair basketball side that represents Australia in international competitions. The team is known as the Gliders. The team hasn't won a gold medal for Australia since i ...

, nicknamed the Gliders