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The old forum description was:

Hang gliders for hang gliding for any scale or purpose are invented locally or globally over time. We study the invention space of hang gliders whether or not the hang gliding involves payloads that are living or non living. Tiny hang gliders and really huge hang gliders are studied.

What inventions have appeared in the course of aviation for hang gliders? Not all inventions are covered by patents, but patents may well reveal inventions that were placed in the public domain.

We study and discuss both kite hang gliders and non-kite hang gliders. We see that a dead or off power source carried may very well show the extant system as a hang glider.

Hang gliders may be put to very many purposes. Invention of new purpose is a valid invention. E.g., just the following statement might be the first time ever for the following purpose to be published: Have a hang glider specially designed to well fulfill the purpose of charging batteries by using RATs. If such dedicated purpose had been shared before, then this instance of publishing would not be global invention.

Parts of hang gliders have been invented. Different hang gliders have been invented.

Invention flows in two main categories: 1. mechanical-function-method; and 2. ornamental appearance (the exact visual lines, even if the visual lines cannot function as a flying machine of much use; function is not required of appearance inventions; mechanical integrity for flying purposes is not part of the ornamental-design deal.

If a patent starts a post, then replies are to be discussing that patent and its claims.

If an invention is in public domain, we search and discuss the roots, perhaps fuzzy, of the invention. E.g., the foot-launched simple hang glider with battens in the sail using the A-frame or cable-stayed triangle control frame (two-queen posts based with a basebar was, at least by 1908, in the public domain; such a simple hang glider device for control is still used much today.
M34: Forum is changing venue as of Feb. 26, 2014
The present venue is being closed. All messages are archived and open:
http://www.energykitesystems.net/HangGliderInventions/OldForumArchiveHGI.html
And in the new folder, we are open to continue the posting of notes, images, etc. on Hang Glider Inventions.
Thank you,  All ,for your participation in the experimental forum space. We now may develop the focus in the news space. This is the final message in the old space.
Lift,
JoeF       See you at  Hang Glider Inventions
M33: Hang glider Hangegleiter   DE 3516998 A1     Filed: May 10, 1985    This is up for detail discussion by anyone.
M32: Cross flow fan hang glider device   by  CHENG CHUNMING
M31:   Nov. 14, 2013

Marj (Davis) Gillespie, 

        The committee on Oswald Watt Gold Medal regarding John Wallace Dickenson

was somehow fooled. The global mechanicals of what Mr. Dickenson tinkered 

were solidly in the public domain; he was not the global mechanical inventor

of the modern hang glider.  The root of the tilt is well documented for those 

who wish to represent aviation history with integrity and appropriate scrutiny. 

A rolling growing snowball effect of error and tilt seems to have fooled the committee

and the RFACA.  


 

It is hoped that The Royal Federation of Aero Clubs of Australia

will find a way to well balance historical remarks.  


 

A start for those who care:

http://www.energykitesystems.net/WHGA/FlexWingHangGliderGoldAirAward.html


Wish you and your team the best, 

 

Joe Faust


 

===========================

Not sent to the above, however: 


 

Ever watch a rolling snowball grow as it rolled?

Two wrongs let a third and a tenth come easier and easier. 

GH can roll the momentum for further and further feathers. 

We have been witness to how an aviation error can fly while adding feather after feather!  

The 11th and the 20th will get easier for GH to roll into the pool!  The tilt gets sillier as the GH rolls.  

I wonder what Hargrave would say to the matter?
M30:   ... empty
M29:   Who came up with the flexible wing kite glider????

See the left leading edge and right leading edge. See the keel. See the crossbar or spreader. See the flexible sail. 

 

Above is a clip in a book in 1896 by author Daniel C. Beard. 
It was already understood by those skilled in the arts (for nearly 100 years about in first decade of 1800s)
that the mechanical arts involved of hanging weights for control of gliding of kite-like wings
M28:  May 20, 2013   Flex-Wing Hang Glider Gold Air Award
NEWS RELEASE
So easy to copy, make, tweak, etc, since first decade of 1910: 
NEWS RELEASE

The World Hang Gliding Association has awarded Gustave Whitehead, Tony Prentice, John Worth, Charles Richards, Barry Hill Palmer, Thomas H. Purcell, Jr., and James Hobson, Mike Burns, John Dickenson, Richard Miller, Bill Bennett, Bill Moyes, Dave Kilbourne, Richard Eipper, and Peter Brock, a combination Flex-Wing Hang Glider Gold Air Award for their showing simplicities in hang gliders using the four-boom flex-wing radiating out of standard kiting and gliding extant public-domain arts or the Rogallo-NASA-Ryan-Paresev environment using public-domain arts extant since the first decade of 1910. The Gustave Whitehead teachings that were inspired from the works of others like Otto Lilienthal, Percy Pilcher, Wenham, and others and the most simple hang glider in Breslau of 1908 that had the simple cable-stayed A-frame we use commonly today, combined with the works of these hang glider men of the Flex-Wing Hang Glider Gold Air Award, firms the impossibility of anyone fairly claiming global mechanical "invention" of the basic core hang glider that saturated the 1960s until even prior arts in flying wings saturated designs post 1974. The Gold Award by WHGA is open for the entrance of other men or women to the special award as data justifies; please send in flex-wing hang glider historical data to the FlexWingHangGliderGoldAirAward@WorldHangGlidingAssociation.org  for processing and possible adding people to the award. The public-domain art extant in 1961 was super simple to copy and make into one's own tinkered wing; the ancients could have had the flex-wing four-boom hang glider thousands of years ago for successful flight as did the men of the this WHGA Flex-Wing Hang Glider Gold Air Award. One can trace the mechanics of Hobson's or Eipper's four-boom flex-wing hang glider right into the first decade of 1900s. The minor tweaks of ornamental appearance for tweaked site and use missions remain part of the story of the flex-wing hang glider. 

Unfortunately one person who came late in the game has been being pushed into an untenable claim at mechanical global invention of that which belonged to the public already; that person is listed in the award despite the infamous untenable claim that was unfortunately rubber stamped by some orgs who exercised a low-bar scrutiny over their award text to the injury of others and to hang gliding history. It can be traced how one person bullied the untenable claim along with other untenable claims. Differently, the WHGA has this Flex-Wing Hang Glider Gold Air Award that will be open to historical findings about the flex-wing hang glider, perhaps battened. Enjoy the history of each awardee's personal story and adventure. See the emptiness of the hoax, but see the joy of making and flying. The FAI, GH, and JD should know that they will probably be forgiven by the hang gliding community for the rash unsound flattening of the otherwise rich history of the public-domain flex-wing hang glider arts, when they recant and rewrite their untenable texts for some fresh version with open and fair apologies. The great sport of hang gliding has a big joyous heart and it seems to recognize how huge is the excitement that many have about hang gliding; when someone get so excited that wish to claim what belongs to another, then such matter will be brought to light by those who care about the face of hang gliding; there is no need to flatten a giant great scene into a one-point untenable. 

Let us know if the WHGA is to add other names to the flex-wing flow fit for the Flex-Wing Hang Glider Gold Air Award   FlexWingHangGliderGoldAirAward@WorldHangGlidingAssociation.org
M27:   May 17, 2013  Public domain art seeds a renaissance in kite-gliding hang gliding paragling
 

Oct. 27, 1961, Thomas H. Purcell, Jr. took his first flight in his kite-glider. He would go on to sell his plans in Popular Mechanics in 1962 f   and also in Experimental Aircraft Association's magazine Sport Aviation. 

=============================================================
Sorry, GH, not even the first of "modern" hang gliders. Way off. Your hug to JD is so tight that you seem not to be able to take in anything but your untenable thesis. Boy smashes glass bottle and runs away; an org looks at the broken glass and declares: there is broken glass and publishes such; others look at the published statement about the broken glass and derives statements: "broken glass is there." Seeding boy says, "Don't blame me, I had nothing to do with that third-party statement." GH, the record is there; you broke the glass and now have a habit of running away from the matter. Consider taking responsibility; become a hero and use your powers to 'fess up to the orgs, support the counterexamples, and just let the raw good story of JD fly. With your pointed leadership and a hoped-for enlightened JD, perhaps a strong wave of correction can be made. FAI-CIVL may even lose its entire life, if it does not see through what you have brought to test the FAI; FAI hiding its head on the matter will be a sad story. But FAI could become better and stronger if it faces the challenge your actions have initiated. Will you form a new initiative, a new campaign, to bring on a better FAI and hang gliding history sector in orgs in our community? Hope so.

Sorry, GH, 
The root source of the untrue slide statement in the video was from the results of your bully tactics in Australia. The slide will be changed by the publisher soon. Cost: About five persons and some 10 man hours. But the damage will cost others even more time. Community costs of poor journalism is high. 

And in your note above, you continue to state an untenable. 
The tinkered ski kite glider of JD simply was not the first of modern hang gliders; you continue such false statements in your tunnel vision. The seed of the hang gliders of today does not rest in JD (he was part of a flow that had already been seeded); and not one of your over ten untenable claims for JD hold?each is a false claim. The cost to correct your seeded false statements is tremendous; your campaign tired HGFA and your campaign seeded the result of awards that hold untenable historical statements. You seem to refuse to incorporate historical facts while trying to melt your untenables into an avalanche of facts in hopes that such non-sequitors and association will "win" the applause of the untenables. Well, you do win the infamy of hoaxer regarding the untenable claims for your fav JD. He was certainly not the first in the modern renaissance of hang gliding to use well the Rogallo-NASA-Ryan-USArmy-Marine-inspired four boomer with A-frame; others showed the full tech before JD started his tinkering. All the tech and show was in public domain, shown internationally and even foot-launched before JD started. Those earlier were seeds in the visions and minds of thousands. JD did his project and became part of the later good flow; there is no problem with that good flow. The problem is the set of untenables that you bullied into HGFA and subsequent resultants of FAI, USHPA, and a French low-scruity flow. You do not well utilize professional-level invention logic. 

You do not put into timelines the facts that counter your untenables. 
JD has become partners with you on the awful flat face to hang gliding that has resulted from your bullied set of untenables that will wreak havoc on the creative face of hang gliding history for a very long time until a groundswell from the ranks counters you and boycotts FAI until real leadership occurs in FAI for historical accuracy; until then your awful untenable seed set has won infamy for you and JD; enjoy the minutes of infamy while you can, as the final legacy ? hopefully will be a robust showing of your record and the low scrutiny of org rubber stampers. Yes, the video student error came from the untenable seed you placed into our hang gliding community; such types of errors will be published many times over. If you care about the hang gliding community as a whole, please consider working with the HGFA and FAI-CIVL to correct matters. And consider correcting all your statements on the Internet that have counterexamples. Consider one-by-one retracting the ten or more untenables of your first article on JD; and then go from there and correct other false claims you made during your raw bully-push campaign. Keep facts that show a good story; and there is yet a good story for JD, but you have deeply muddied his story with your multitude of untenable interpretive claims for him. The cost that others are going through to bring out corrections is considerable; there is a good side to the effort, though, as simply more hang gliding history gets exposed. Now is the time to get even more history out solid: "tear down that Wall" and become a corrector, GH.

~Joe Faust

NMERider, very neat selection on that urban-bee video story! Thanks for posting its link. ~JoeF

The full robust story of what led to the boon in hang gliding in the 60s and 70s of former century will be a play of thousands of actors. 
Following some of the actors gives just PART of the robust story; the full story is HUGE and worth the effort to many to fly through it. The one-person sticky bias will surely miss the FULL story terribly. Because of GH's tunnel vision and love for one JD combined with his YELL and BULLY tactics, the Internet is stressed by ever having to counter the one-person JD set of tilted and oft deeply inaccurate statements. When the yell and push is so loud and forceful, where is there space to enjoy the rich full story? And when the single-person push headlines a deep-core creative aspect in an untenable capsule that gets picked up and morphed over and over again, the task of seeing the robust fuller story gets challenging. Having to counter false statements brings fruit of clarity and will forever be part of the history of getting the story out. Those who invest to correct are part of the blessing. It is hoped that many will continue to unfold the full hang gliding history while also correcting matters that will surely rise to be challenging. By the tension that has been brought by GH efforts, we both know more about one guy in our community than we would have; but we also have a pile of untenables that gain a life of their own that pull time and effort to correct. The one-person-sticky loud bias source has its credibility challenges. Differently, anyone missing the over ten large flows that brought on the boon or renaissance will short herself or himself of a great time and adventure. 

One can only mention one thing at a time, perhaps. When there are thousands of things in the Big Story, one at a time still occurs. Adventurers in the story of hang gliding history are invited to collect their own timeline of what interests them. Record facts. Record who and what and when. Record connections and audiences and influences. Let flow the over-ten large rivers of hang gliding activity that fed the mid-century renaissance, an event that was actually a continuation of many hang gliding influences. Watch out for tunnel visions in interpreters, so as not to miss the waves of merit from the thousands of actors who merit attention of blessing to our hang gliding history. Take your time. Have fun. Model. Run. Jump. Build. Inspect. Launch. Fly. Land. ? and more. ~JpF

==============================edit an hour later: 
http://www.ushawks.org/forum/download/file.php?id=1977

Almost three years before the start of JD tinkering; Ryan matter, courtesy of San Diego Air and Space Museum: 
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3069/5765392667_5c6fa19c8c.jpg
http://www.ushawks.org/forum/download/file.php?id=1960
The clip text is from a document published and distributed to a vast distribution list: AD 297214
Reproduced by the Armed Services Technical Information Agency
Arlington Hall Station
Arlington 12, Virginia

U. S. Army Transportation Research Command
Fort Eustis, Virgina
TCREC Tecnical Report 62-3G
FLEXIBLE-WING CARGO GLIDERS
VOLUME II
tASK 9r38-01-017-72
Contract DA 44-177-TC-779
September 1962

Prepared by RYAN AEROSPACE
A Division of The
RYAN AERONAUTICAL COMPANY
San Diego, California

============The study was for four masses of payload, one of which was with a payload of 250 lb, others were heavier. In the document they pointed to full understanding of man-carrying and took direct effort to bring the experiments up to the safety level required for man-carrying. 
http://www.ushawks.org/forum/download/file.php?id=1958

Started earlier and pre-announced, and then published and broadcasted in September 1962 
http://www.ushawks.org/forum/download/file.php?id=1516
Nationally televised. And internationally shown via EAA in Sport Aviation. Foot-launched. Shared. Nine years later seeded the Self-Soar Association office. 
Fat year before JD tinkered!
 

Well, priority on build, show, and tell: 
Some, incomplete list of those using the public-domain arts: ? some were even foot launchers!
Tony Prentice of age 13 (not NASA related; only kite and glider history inspired), 
John Worth, 
Cecil E. Craigo, 
Peter F. Girard , 
Barry Hill Palmer , 
Thomas Purcell in his first Flightsail towing over land and water.
and James Hobson 
Paresev team and crew and associates in project: towing and gliding high with astronauts; eight pilots total in that program , and others ?(incomplete list of the priors)
AND ONLY LATER: Mike Burns. 
And then later still Dickenson for towing over water in ski kites. 

All in that short priority list except Prentice were Rogallo-NASA-Ryan-inspired projects. Hobson had the A-frame like earlier John Worth and others earlier like in 1908. Unfortunately GH forty-plus or so years later would push a false "inventor" claim and at least ten other false claims for the Dickenson project. But notice that in first decade of 1900s Gustave Whitehead taught hung pilot in seat behind downtubes and basebar in battened flex-wing hang glider! And in Breslau a very simple battened hang glider, the very cable-stayed A-frame control system we use today. 

GH, for the sake of a rich face for hang gliding and not a flat untenable face, please tear down that phony "inventor" wall and wash off the untenable claims! The unexamined provisional application and the over-generous historical fumble of FMR that you use to unfairly promote untenables do not bring validity to the untenable title you have foisted on JD for our hang gliding community. Sooner than later get on a helpful path for change; and help clean up the mess you made in FAI, HGFA, and USHPA, and our hang gliding history community. You can fly, yes you can?on this rework? without the hoax; help clean up the legacy before JD takes the Next Thermal; now is a good time just before the coming memorial for Hobson on Otto Lilienthal's birthday; good time to make an interior change and decision to get things sans the phony hoax. Even if you make the change, GH, it will take considerable effort and years to clear the historical airs. Infamy is probably less satisfying than merited honor; there is yet opportunity to merit hang glider history honor for yourself in a correcting of the JD "legacy" that has been tilted by you and presumably accepted by JD.

===============================
A copy of my reply to GH is placed at the bottom of the following file: 
http://www.energykitesystems.net/hgh/TonyPrentice/index.html
M26: US4858854 (A) - Inflatable aerodynamic wing structure   by  JACOBSON BARRY J [GB] +
M25:  PILOTLESS GLIDER CONSTRUCTION by Willis R. Battles      US3920201
M24: Off the engine and have a circular-winged hang glider:  Notice the full awareness of the then-old triangle control frame or A-frame. Filed in 1927 by Paola P. Worrell   Airplane    US1735308
M23: US4195801 (A) - Partial piloting, lift propelling and propelling system      Filed: Nov 22, 1977
M22:  Remote control hang glider towing aircraft    US4248394     Filed Mar 5, 1979
M21: Hang Glider by Volmer S. Jensen and Irven H. Culver    Patent number: D233426  Filing date: May 10, 1973 Issue date: Oct 29, 1974
M20: EP0481843 (B1) - Control device for a gliding wing.
M19: When the power is off, the system is a hang glider. Self-propelled flexible wing glider  EP 0004965 A1 by Franz WEISHAAR
M18:   US3995799  Frank J. Bartolini   Filed on May 23, 1975
M17:  Hang glider EP1151918 B1  by Gesuino PETRETTO of Italy. Filed May 5, 2000.
M16:  TOWING WINCH APPARATUS FOR PARAGLIDERS AND HANG- GLIDERS by John TVINGSHOLM
Filed: Dec 16, 2004.      WO2005058698A1
M15:  Man-powered hang glider by Hiroaki YASUDA of Japan. Filed: April 30, 1991 at USPO.  US5170965
M14:  Hang Glider by Laurent DE KALBERMATTEN  EP1399363A1
M13:  Steering device for a hang glider EP0346323B1  by Josef KECUR. Filed: Mar 3, 1987
M12: Combined boardsailer and hang glider  US4458859  by Anton P. Ganev. Filed:  Apr 20, 1983
 
Some possibly related images: 
Using wind energy to gain speed and then leave wave and water surface to hang glide back to the water: 
Others are welcome. Perhaps aim to get close to the patentee's intention for selecting linked photos. 
M11: Walter Villa Gilbert, of New York, N.Y..   US1823096     Filed: Mar 7, 1929
Discussion start:   The payload hanging from the lifting wing intends persons, water hull, motor,  and hydro propeller.
When the machine is airborne some hung-mass gliding occurs.  Aerodynamic adjustments are envisioned by the inventor. The teaching Mr. Gilbert was open to many sorts of wings, not limited to the drawings, which depict some low-mass flexible-sail with ability to change camber of the formed airfoil in flight.
M10:  Reconfigurable toy extreme sport hang glider   US7722426  by Fraser Campbell.  Filed: Dec 16, 2005
M9: The A-frame in hang gliders?
One evolute of the A-frame in hang gliders was running gear and landing gear and takeoff gear for the early powered aircraft; and yet the A-frame for such purpose may be one of the most ubiquitous assemblies in aircraft.

One of the early fully simple hang gliders of battened flexible wing was in 1908 in Breslau in a gliding club; it has pilot hung from keel behind the apexing A-frame triangle control frame with two downtubes (queenposts) and a control basebar; we still use such in many hang gliders today.
Include the infinite-zenithal A-frame or U frame.
Include the opening A-frame or strut-braced.
Include the empty top and empty bottom A-frame, that is, just the two downtubes. Illustrate.  
[[ W. Simon had legal coverage over the A-framed hang glider, 1908. ]]
M8:  Spars in hang glider?  
M7  Splints in hang gliders? 
M6:  Drop-stitch fabric in hang gliders?
M5: Discuss circle wings in hang gliders. Teasing discussion: Discuss circle wings in hang gliders. 
[Scott flying machine utilizing large discs, with aviator G. Haury in the seat and Tony Mazzinatto standing]
M4: Some tools are being built to serve this group. Inputs by anyone for the individual tools are welcome. 
M3: Flight Path Control System For Aircraft     US20120248258 by Benjamin A. Harber  Filed: Mar 31, 2011.
This is an application for a patent. What is novel in the claims, as weight-shift-control using platforms has been done in many ways?
M2: Michael Cone definitely has hang gliders in his view as he teaches a special means to know the status of the structure of a hang glider.  What has he to offer hang gliders and the care and use of hang gliders in his teaching in the following recent patent? Patent number: US 8214178     Filing date: Jun 2, 2009.  Issue date: Jul 3, 2012
M1:  Jan. 25, 2013
Welcome to a place where inventions in the hang glider space may be studied and discussed. 
Hang gliders for hang gliding for any scale or purpose are invented locally or globally over time. We study the invention space of hang gliders whether or not the hang gliding involves payloads that are living or non living. Tiny hang gliders and really huge hang gliders are studied. We cover commercial hang gliders, industrial hang gliders, toy hang gliders, art hang gliders, planetary hang gliders, earth-sport hang gliders, Moon-City hang gliders, Space Colony hang gliders, etc. 

What inventions have appeared in the course of aviation for hang gliders? Not all inventions are covered by patents, but patents may well reveal inventions that were placed in the public domain along with, perhaps, some novelty claim or novel advancement, or just different part, etc.  

We study and discuss both kite hang gliders and non-kite hang gliders. We see that a dead or off power source carried may very well show the extant system as a hang glider.  Control matters; the whole spectrum of control methods and involved control mechanicals are game.  All-canopy hang gliders (from L/D of just barely positive) to high-L/D canopy hang gliders are in view here (paragliders to some; but "paraglider" actually is another name for kite hang gliders with any degree of stiffening in the wings of the wing set.    

 
Kite hang gliders are true kite systems and so the study of kite systems is a high resource for the free-flight kite systems that are then kite hang gliders. Inventions in kite systems will have their matching free-flight kite system in the hang glider realm. 

 
Hang gliders and inventions on them form a subject space that goes beyond narrow definitions of some users of hang gliders; e.g., the artificial corporation FAI  seems ever to be forming and changing their definition of hang glider for its specifics reasons that are much more narrow than the mechanical raw hang glider invention space.  Sport may occur in the use of huge commercial hang gliders; sport is not owned by this or that artificial corporation.  

Hang gliders may be put to very many purposes. Invention of new purpose is a valid invention. E.g., just the following statement might be the first time ever for the following purpose to be published: Have a hang glider specially designed to well fulfill the purpose of charging batteries by using RATs. If such dedicated purpose had been shared before, then this instance of publishing would not be global invention. 

Parts of hang gliders have been invented. Different hang gliders have been invented. 

Invention flows in two main categories: 1. mechanical-function-method; and 2. ornamental appearance (the exact visual lines, even if the visual lines cannot function as a flying machine of much use; function is not required of appearance inventions; mechanical integrity for flying purposes is not part of the ornamental-design deal. 

If a patent starts a post, then replies are to be discussing that patent and its claims. 

If an invention is in public domain, we search and discuss the roots, perhaps fuzzy, of the invention. E.g., the foot-launched simple hang glider with battens in the sail using the A-frame or cable-stayed triangle control frame (two-queen posts based with a basebar was, at least by 1908, in the public domain; such a simple hang glider device for control is still used much today.
~ JoeF

 
 

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