During World War II, Soaring enthusiasts not in uniform were interested in finding a public service that they could perform. The possibility of a youth glider training program had been discussed, and a glider conference, sponsored by the SSA and the Philadelphia Glider Council, was held at the Franklin Institute on March 27, 1943, to consider this idea.

Thirty representatives were present. The main problem in starting such a program was the lack of gliders, launching equipment, gliderports outside the defense zone, and personnel to conduct the courses. Committees were set up to study these factors and report to the SSA directors.

It was agreed that if a civilian program such as this was to be permitted to continue during the war, it could not interfere with the war effort. This eliminated the use of aero tow. It was recommended that instead, a single-place utility glider be used with auto or winch towing. It was suggested that Schweizer look into the possibility of building such a glider with a minimum of strategic materials. The 1-19 was the result, but because of the wartime limitations, developing it was a slow process and the prototype was not completed and flown until the summer of 1944. By this time there was no longer enough interest in a wartime youth program. Schweizer therefore decided to get it type certificated and to put it into production after the war as a completed utility glider and as a simplified kit. The 1-19A was the kit version

50 1-19’s were built and about 15-20 are still registered with the FAA today. Schweizer experimented with a powered version but did not develop it. Despite being small and light, rigging is complicated with many pins. Though it was produced with an open cockpit, many owners have added canopies.

The 1-20 was made by lengthening the 1-19 wing by 6 feet and tapering the section outboard of the strut attach points. The factory only made the prototype 1-20 and did not put it into production. The reason for this was stated to me in a letter by Paul Schweizer:

The 1-19 did what we expected of it, but as with any low performance sailplane one always wishes for more performance. After the initial production run of 1-19's , the sales tapered off, and we thought a higher performance version would enable us to keep the 1-19 production going. It was a relatively easy matter to beef up and extend a 1-19 wing by making the portion outboard of the strut point tapered and of greater span. It reduced the wing and span loading and increased the aspect ratio, so it had improved sinking speed and had a very small turning radius, which made it an excellent small thermal machine.

It was not put into production since we had several other projects after we had built the 1-20. The 2-22 followed, as did the 1-21 which was finished in June of 1947, and won the 1947 Nationals at Wichita Fall. This was followed by the 1-23 in 1948 which we put into production.

As a result, there was not the development time, or the market, for the 1-20.