The Ski Wing
In 1963, after seeing an image of a Rogallo wing airfoil on a magazine, Dickenson set to build a water skiing wing that could be released at altitude for a glide to a safe landing, thus designed and built a water skiing kite wing he called the Ski Wing.
His ski kite format incorporated an airframe with a triangle control frame having a basebar tow-point and was integrated on a Rogallo wing airfoil, where the pilot sat on a swinging seat while the control frame and wire bracing distributed the load to the wing as well as giving a frame to brace for weight-shift control. Dickenson's Ski Wing turned out to be stable and controllable, unlike the flat manned kites used at water ski shows. The Ski Wing was first flown in public at the 'Grafton Jacaranda Festival', New South Wales, Australia, in September 1963 by Rod Fuller while towed behind a motorboat.
The Ski Wing was light and portable so Dickenson decided to file for a patent, but lacking on economic resources, the patent process of formal review of claims could not be entered to determine which, if any, of the claims could hold, so the patent was not awarded.
Read more about this topic: John W. Dickenson
Famous quotes containing the words ski and/or wing:
“The goal for all blind skiers is more freedom. You don’t have to see where you’re going, as long as you go. In skiing, you ski with your legs and not with your eyes. In life, you experience things with your mind and your body. And if you’re lacking one of the five senses, you adapt.”
—Lorita Bertraun, Blind American skier. As quoted in WomenSports magazine, p. 29 (January 1976)
“The wild touch of thy dye-dusty wing!
I found that wing broken today!”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)