Annecdote time: I live in Lincoln, UK - to the East everything is flat as a pancake until you get to the Wolds, and to the west we have the similarly flat floodplain of the Trent river. In between, we have the very steep Lincolnshire Edge (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincoln_Cliff) and the prospective aeronaut could have jumped off Lincoln Cathedral (https://lincolncathedral.com)- way back when the highest building in the world. So ideal for developing a useful glider.

And of course Lincolnshire is famous for being "bomber country" in WW2 - weather and geography helping to get the horribly overladen beasts airborn.