The Torrey Pines cliffs have featured soaring aircraft since the 1930s, with many famous aviators earning their wings on the strong ocean breezes. Many aviation pioneers have flown at Torrey Pines. On February 24, 1930,
Charles A. Lindbergh made the first soaring flight in a sailplane above the cliffs at Torrey Pines on a flight Mt. Soledad to Del Mar in a Bowlus sailplane. His flight also established a western regional distance record for gliders at the time. His wife
Anne Morrow Lindbergh had qualified as the first American woman to earn a first-class glider license on a flight in a Bowlus sailplane also from Mt. Soledad on January 29, 1930. During World War II, the gliderport and its surroundings were transformed into U.S. Army
Camp Callan, an anti-aircraft artillery training facility. After the end of the war, members of the Associated Glider Clubs of Southern California arranged a lease with the City of San Diego and recreational glider operations resumed. By the 1950s, radio-controlled model sailplanes were flown at the site, with hang gliding becoming popular at the site in the early 1970s, and paragliding at the site since the late 1980s. The gliderport has been the location of several national and international soaring records and is associated with many important individuals in the development of soaring in the United States including
Hawley Bowlus, Bud Perl, Bill Beuby, John Robinson, Dick Essery, Bill Ivans, Helen Dick, Richard Johnson, Bill Petre,
Robert Cardenas and
Paul MacCready. For many years Torrey Pines was also home to the Pacific Coast Midwinter Soaring Championships, one of the longest running annual glider events in United States history. ==Location==