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AWE4730 |
PG Activity Sector
History of para-gliders and their use
(gliding kite = paraglider) ::
GK=PG={r,t,w}
Three essential coupled parts of paraglider
~~~tether set bi-ended with wings set in fluid to effect gliding~~~
One wing of a paraglider may be
designated as the resistive set r
while the other tether-terminus wing may be a
set of wings w.
The coupling tether may be a set t
of multiple lines.
GK=PG={r,t,w}
Use of paragliders:
science, exploration, photography, industry, service, surveillance,
photography, commerce, sport, play, hobby, recreation, etc. Using
paragliders various is called: flying, kite flying, kite gliding, hang
gliding, parakiting, paragliding, etc. Gravity and flight
dynamics of the resistive set r may be enhanced by a motor or engine to
drive the kiting of the upper wing set w.
Parakites, gliding kites, gliding parachutes,
paragliders, kite hang gliders of single tether, kite hang glider
of two tethers (hanging seats), ...
Paragliding is the
launching, flying, and landing of gliding-kite systems
with or without humans aboard.
The wing set of paragliders may have as much rigid structure
as found successful for a particular mission or purpose.
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The history of paragliding then would be the history of the
use of machine paraglider no matter the words used, no matter the language
used, and no matter the degree of awareness or type of use involved.
Written or spoken words do not control where or when the machine
paraglider came into human or natural scenes. Indeed nature provided
the first instances of paraglider, at least from the spider realm. |
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Leonardo da Vinci. Notice that he fully knew of gliding items. He
knew of parachute. Absolute symmetry hardly occurs in material
parachutes. He sketched asymmetry flight of glider. His parachute would
not descend perfectly straight down. BASE jumping would have been vogue
for experiments: towers and all. His sketch has a mystery line to
the apex of his square parachute. Some believe he is a good start for
gliding parachutes, thus gliding kites, thus paraglider machines. Easily
though, earlier kiting experts had lines break and fugitive kite
with long line would have resulted; it is not difficult to see a
resisting tether bottom terminus being an object or person that would be
lifted up by kite and then glided back down; the fullness of early
kiting millennia ago as to gliding kites (paragliders) is speculative in
large part. Notes are welcome.
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We go from Leonardo probably skipping some gliding kites to reported
gliding kite system in Parakites, the classic book by Gilbert T.
Woglom published in English in 1896, fully available online. Reported to
Woglom was a fugitive system of parakites that were paired by a kite
line; the system broke off a kited train of kites. The free para-glider
soared and glided a very substantial distance. Also,
Woglom himself flew and observed carefully some of his parakites flying
merely by the drag and mass of lower line as his parakites lifted in
updrafts and not needing the grounded anchor.
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In Breslau of 1908 in a gliding club there as a glider with a single
short tether to the human pilot; the pilot hung from the glider's wing
and was close enough to the wing's airframe to manipulate the wing for
control. A set of three members set in a triangle was cable-stayed to
other parts of the wing's structure; this may have been a strong early
use of the triangle control frame or A-frame for hang gliders where the
pilot hung from a tether set. This whole arrangement was beyond just
glider as the main mass that hung was "beyond" the wing below. Following
Woglom with "para" as "beyond" ...even without the raw word in Breslau,
the device in the gliding club fulfills a "para" glider. Any wing has
structure of some sort, fully limp or framed or even fully solid. We
include the Breslau kite hang glider as a paraglider. Such ease would
follow later with the NASA structured and framed paragliders.
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Domina Jalbert
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Francis M. Rogallo
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David Barish
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Lemoigne
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Otto W. Neumark
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Everett
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Other inventors affecting the gliding kite (paraglider) world
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Tony Prentice in 1960, age 13
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Synder
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Paresev
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NASA paragliders from fully limp to highly stick framed kite gliders
named paragliders.
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Barry Hill Palmer
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Mike Burns
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Two sorts of paragliders: Without Visible Means of Support by
Richard Miller, published in 1967.
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Low, Slow, and Out of Control
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K.I.T.E.S.A. Kite Information and Technology Exchange Society of
America
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Bill Moyes
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Bill Bennett
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Dave Kilbourne
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Low & Slow
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Self-Soar Association (international, members in 23 nations)
Mostly paragliders and some non-paraglider hang gliders.
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United States Hang Glider Association
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Hang Glider Business Weekly
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Hang Glider magazine weekly
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Hang Glider Manufacturers Association (first)
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Hang Glider Manufacturers Association (second)
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United States Hang Gliding Association
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Many other clubs and associations
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FAI narrows their interests on sport
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United States Hang Gliding & Paragliding Association (confusion,
identity crisis, definition fuzzy, lowering of DIY)
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BHPA
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Age of the Parrot Paragliders with loss of DIY. Division between fully
limp paragliders in sport bylaws from framed paragliders. Text default
terms do not change the raw mechanics. Yet the fully limp canopy
realm still teases in stiffening while private corporations benefit by
rulings to make classes of fully limp canopy hang gliders as the "only"
"paragliders" in resonance with commercial interests; yet the
mechanical realities remain: paragliders may be with any wing from full
limpness to full solidity and all shades between. The essence: wing
set, tether set, resistive payload set: gliding kite ....
with as much framing as needed for the success of particular missions
and applications and purposes. The raw totally limp canopy wing is
just one sort of paraglider; the teasing of carbon rods,
stiffening ribs, bolstered leading edges, Paramontante spars, etc. face
the challenges of safety and performance relative to missions. A grand
panorama has FAI and sport competition as one large sector of
paragliding; but other sectors keep growing.
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Realization of PDMC
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Sport paragliding's blind eye to
PDMC.
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In a decade+ 2000-2011: over 900 fatalities involving the fully-limp
paraglider is poorly addressed.
The cost is huge as too many ignore the implications of the PDMC.
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World ParaGliding
Association
(WPGA) addresses choices, includes study of
PDMC, invites wide attention
over mechanical choices in paraglider, respects the short-single-tether
kite hang glider as paraglider in tune with historical roots and raw
mechanical realities, respects the full spectrum of paragliders (gliding
kites) where sets
r, t, w
may
have element counts of one or many within one paraglider.
WPGA refreshes the Self-Soar Association's free life-time membership and
open-source paragliding technology sharing systems. WPGA accepted
gift support of server space for online presence from
EnergyKiteSystems that is
pioneering
FF-AWECS
paraglider energy-production systems. Set
r
may hold a human pilot or not. Paragliders manned or
unmanned come in all sizes form tiny (less than size of a hand) to huge
(larger than 747 commercial passenger jet). WPGA serves sport,
industrial, scientific, energy, public service, hobby, recreation, art
paragliding while respecting the sport FAI sector and more as reflected,
in part, in member
Activity Sectors.
Several new forums have been opened for paragliding matters:
ParaglidingUnlimited |
ParagliderPatents |
KitePatents,
and more to provide space for interested persons to forward paragliding
in a robust manner.
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A flow of governable parachutes also provided gliding kites or
paragliders, from Leonardo da Vinci through several others that will be
described in this history.
SEND
your notes and references. The history of gliding parachutes
is a definite sector of the history of paragliders.
- *Wings in the gliding-kite
systems are from (but not limited from) evolutes of:
Jalbert (parafoil), Rogallo (parawing), Barish (sailwing or glide wing),
Lemoigne (Para-commander),
Otto W. Neumark, Everett, Prentice,
Any wing may be used in a gliding kite system: paraglider. Solid,
semi-solid, fully flexible, stick-framed or not: Any wing.
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SEND IN YOUR HISTORY NOTES for this history-work-in-progress, THANKS...
Be sure we receive what you know about the history of gliding kites
(paragliders) and the wide uses for such flight systems.
Send notes:
Lift@worldparaglidingassociation.org
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- Some sport wing supply:
AirDesign,
Apco, Gin, Gradient, Independence, Ozone, Nova, Sol, Skyline and Swing.
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