History of Hang Gliding - Timeline

Timeline

  • 1804 AD. Sir George Cayley built several gliders, distinguished between lift and drag and formulated the concepts of vertical tail surfaces, steering rudders and rear elevators.
  • 1883 John Joseph Montgomery independently built several gliders in the United States and used wind and water tables to formulate thoughts on lifting surfaces.
  • 1887 William Beeson instructs framed flexible-wing glider with trapezed pilot pendulumed: US Patent 376937, filed in 1887, William Beeson of Montana, USA He evolved from his US Patents 243834, 245768, 361855 to his summary fertile 1887 teaching.
  • 1891 First controlled flights, Otto Lilienthal of Germany. His gliders have many features in common with modern hang gliders; they were foot-launched and controlled by displacing the center of gravity, referred to as 'weight-shift'.
  • 1891–1896. First soaring flights. Germany, near Berlin at Gross Lichterfelde. Otto Lilienthal.
  • 1904, February 15. Jan Lavezzari flew a double lateen sail hang glider off Berck beach, France.
  • 1905 LIFE magazine shows a photograph of an early glider.
  • 1905 Aeronaut Daniel Maloney pilots a balloon-launched tandem Montgomery glider from thousands of feet above the ground to a landing at a predescribed location.
  • 1908 in the territory of Breslau, the triangle control frame with hang glider pilot hung behind the triangle was flown.
  • 1920. Soaring becomes an organized sport at Wasserkuppe, Germany as the World War I Versailles treaty outlaws flying powered aircraft in Germany.
  • 1921. Dr. Wolfgang Klemperer breaks the Wright Brothers 1911 soaring record with a 13-minute flight in Germany. Both flights used ridge lift.
  • 1921. Gottlob Espenlaub demonstrates triangle control frame for his hang glider at Rhon, Germany.
  • 1923. Platz Glider. Not foot-launchable by the pilot alone. Controlled by the pilot directly deforming the front canard wings. It was not a weight-shift hang glider but it was simple enough to be folded into a single length to be carried by Platz while riding a bicycle.
  • 1928. Austrian Robert Kronfeld proved that thermal lift could be used by a sailplane to gain altitude.
  • 1929. Aero towing becomes popular, the three forms of lift are becoming well known.
  • 1929. George A. Spratt demonstrated the use of the triangular control frame for hang glider pendulum weight-shift control, mechanically similar to that used in 1908 in a hang glider in Breslau. Later in the 1930s he invented the Control Wing aircraft.
  • 1933. Wave lift was discovered by Wolf Hirth and one of his students in Germany.
  • 1948. Francis Rogallo invents the flexible wing (Rogallo wing).
  • 1954 Igor Bensen continued emphatically the use of hung-pilot-behind triangle control frame for control method of kite gliders.
  • 1956. Aeronautical engineer Paul MacCready invents the MacCready Speed Ring, used by glider pilots the world over to select optimum flight speed.
  • 1957, October. Francis Rogallo released the flexible wing patent to the U.S.A. government and NASA, producing the Parawing, to be used as a deployable space capsule parachute/glider.
  • 1960. Paresev (Paraglider Research Vehicle) – This experimental spacecraft re-entry kite/glider made use of the Rogallo wing; flight tests made in early 1962 inspired manufacture of flexible wing hang gliders by hobbyists.
  • 1960 The 13-year-old Tony Prentice built a framed hang glider with tether control system.
  • 1961. Fleep. Powered flexible wing aircraft design & manufacture begins.
  • 1961–1962. First documented foot-launch with a Rogallo flex wing hang glider: Barry Hill Palmer, California, U.S.A. Hang glider inspired from a photo of NASA's Fleep.
  • 1961. Celebrity Jim Hobson (of Lawrence Welk Show fame) began experimenting with the Rogallo wing in model form, leading to the construction of a full size glider which he flew it at Dockweiler Beach on January 2, 1962. The glider frame was fabricated from aluminum and aircraft bolts supported by aircraft cable attached to hardware store eye bolts and turnbuckles. A second larger hang glider was taken to Dockweiler Beach; it featured a 4 mil polyester film reinforced with fiberglass tape. Movies of August, 1962 flights were made.
  • 1961. Engineer Thomas Purcell builds a 4.9 metres (16 ft) wide Rogallo airfoil glider with an aluminium frame, wheels, a seat and basic control rods.
  • 1962. Ryan Aeronautical Company publicizes images of the Fleep flexible wing aircraft.
  • 1962. Mike Burns and Dick Swinbourne from Aerostructures, Sydney, Australia, design the Skiplane kite-glider based on the Rogallo wing. It used pendulum weight-shift control and floats.
  • 1963. John Dickenson, Australia. Making of the Ski Wing, the most influential hang glider model, encompassing a control frame and weight-shift control.
  • 1963, September. First flight of the Ski Wing, towed behind a motor boat. The kite/glider was piloted by Rod Fuller and then John Dickenson. Grafton, NSW, Australia.
  • 1963. First release and land of a Ski Wing. Grafton, Australia. Pilot: John Dickenson.
  • 1960s England. Tony Prentice designed and flew several non-Rogallo hang gliders.
  • 1966. Mike Burns and Dick Swinbourne (Aerostructures) begin commercial production of Dickenson's Mark V model.
  • 1966. Early flex wing hang glider, Vista Del Mar. California, U.S.A. by Richard Miller. His gliders, based on Barry Palmer's hang glider, were named Batso and Bamboo Butterfly. Their photos and plans were published in a few magazines during the 1960s. (See the Popularity section.)
  • 1966. Irvin Industries start marketing a commercial version of the Rogallo Wing to sport parachuting enthusiasts.
  • 1967, March. Bill Moyes and Bill Bennett taught to fly the Mark V hang glider by Mike Burns and John Dickenson.
  • 1967. First Australian ski-launch of a flexible wing hang glider without auxiliary power (no towing). Launched from a snowed mountain with snow skis.- Bill Moyes. Mt. Crackenback, Australia. The hang glider was a Mark V purchased from Aerostructures.
  • 1969. Initial tether into headwind then released onto ridge to soar (32 minutes). Bill Moyes. NSW, Australia.
  • 1969. Tony Prentice. First flex wing hang glider foot-launch in the United Kingdom.
  • 1971. Dave Kilbourne foot-launches and soars on ridge and thermal lift (1 hour) at Mission Peak, California, U.S.A. This seems to be the first foot-launch of a flexible wing not using skis.
  • 1971. Alfio Caronti, first flexible wing launched in Italy.
  • 1972. Rick Poynter and Murray Sargeson introduce hang gliding to New Zealand at the 'Fly a Kite Day' in Auckland. The New Zealand Hang Gliding Association is formed as a result of this.
  • 1973. Rock Poynter starts Pacific Sails in Auckland, New Zealand, manufacturing U.S. and Australian Hang Glider designs under license (Seagull III, Stinger), and developing competitive indigenous designs (Falcon, Lancer I, II, IV).
  • 1974. Caril Ridley conducted high altitude flights soaring from a Maharaja's lookout tower near Sonar Hot Springs, India. The event got worldwide coverage.
  • 1975. Weltmeisterschaft im alpinen Drachenflug in Koessen/Austria
  • 1976. Official FAI World Championships in Hang gliding in Koessen/Austria. Terry DeLore from New Zealand is crowned first World Hang Gliding Champion. Hang gliding is now on a FAI sanctioned air sport.
  • 1976. Rudy Kishazy performs the first loop and series of loops at Grands Montets, France.
  • 1977. Jerry Katz first to soar a distance of over 161 kilometres (100 mi), launching from Cerro Gordo Peak, in California's Owens Valley.
  • 1980. East Germany bans hang gliding entirely, the only country to do so – ostensibly to prevent accidents, but in reality to prevent citizens using gliders to escape to the West.
  • 1983. Gérard Thévenot, the manufacturer of the Cosmos trike, introduced aerotowing, the use of weak links, parachute retrieval system of tow line and centre of thrust towing.
  • 1983. Larry Tudor breaks 200 mile barrier on flex-wing.
  • 1990. Larry Tudor breaks 300 mile barrier on flex-wing.
  • 1992. The Exxtacy rigid wing hang glider, designed by Felix Ruehle.
  • 1999. The ATOS rigid wing hang glider, designed by Felix Ruehle.
  • 2001. Manfred Ruhmer breaks 400 mile barrier on flex-wing.
  • 2012. John W. Dickenson is awarded the Gold Air Medal by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale for the invention of the "modern hang glider".

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