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Hang Glider History Timeline       EnterData  +
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Notes:  Link prefix with "g" is a generalized Google search. 
Prefix with a "w" is a leading Wikipedia file on topic.

Books and Art

Consider copy-paste one of these in the Keywords field:

• hang glider

• hang gliding

• paragliding

• ultralights

• microlights

• kites

• kiting

• 
   
• Abstract
  A hang glider flight simulator wherein a pilot is is suspended from a harness. A control apparatus for maneuvering the suspended pilot simulates movements occurring during hang gliding. A visual display is positioned to be viewed by the pilot. The maneuvering apparatus is synchronized with the visual display so that the simulated movements correspond to images being displayed. The simulator allows persons learning to fly hang gliders to do so without the risk involved in actual flight.
  Patent number: 4355982
  Filing date: Nov 24, 1980
  Issue date: Oct 26, 1982
  Inventor: Christopher James
  Hang glider flight simulator       Christopher James
   

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• Prentice  1981 mated a South Downs Sailwings 12m Sigma to a trike.
• July 1, 1981: Richard Buckminster Fuller died. "Doing more with less." His tensegrity has yet to have full play in hang glider spheres. He has been part of the inspiration of many hang glider designers.  gRBF1 
• Book: 
  An Introduction to Hang Gliding
  by Bob MacKay
  Published in October 1, 1981, Thornhill Press

• Parafoil 
  Simon C. Dell
  Abstract
  A parafoil for supporting a flying machine, which parafoil has a forwardly extending central section open at the front to scoop in air during flight, and wings attached to the rear of the central section and which receive air into the interior thereof either directly or from the central section, said wings being divided into compartments of equalized pressure, and restraining elements attached to the parafoil central section in front of the parafoil wings and to the outer ends of the parafoil wings, thereby in flight to hold down the front of the parafoil central section and hold down the parafoil wings in an inverted U-shape.
   
• Stephan Nitsch and his autogiro hang glider with Spratt control wing tactic, see PDF document with illustrations, photographs, drawings:
  http://jumpnfly.privat.t-online.de/giro_e_nitsch.pdf

Abstract
An ultralight aircraft of lightweight minimal construction includes a collapsible Rogallo type wing from which a hang cage is suspended by a main hinge assembly. The wing includes a longitudinal keel of lightweight tubular construction, leading edge members and a cross brace. A flexible lifting panel is secured along and between the wing members to define a lifting surface. The hinge includes a pitch hinge bracket having an upper longitudinal sleeve in which the keel is clamped. A ball joint connection secured to the bracket is connected to upwardly extending hang cage struts by means of hinge connecting plates to permit free rotation of the wing about a spanwise axis extending longitudinally through the cross brace. Rotation of the wing without pilot intervention induced by positive or negative wind gusts striking the flexible wing panel causes the angle of incidence between the wing and hang cage to vary so that the wing presents a relatively constant angle of attack to relative...

• Progressive Aircraft Company  and its Dawn top-less with strutted triangle control frame.   A study is being made for fresh notes on the "Dawn". Please send notes.   The group HangGliders in 2008 is making a revisit to the Dawn by aircraft designer Dick Boone.  For preliminary notes, join free and then get into the Members Files section: http://HangGliderHistory.com Click for join form.  Image: Dawn.
• LAMA founded.   Light Aircraft Manufacturers Association  
  "Larry Burke, Bill Sadler (Sadler Aircraft), Cliff Rock (Fisher Aircraft), and others in the homebuilt industry founded LAMA, a nonprofit national trade organization, in 1984."    Many early hang glider leaders are participating in LAMA.

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• 
  Swing wing glider 
  Albert L. Gabriel
  Abstract
  A glider comprising a pair of wings having overlapped forward, inner root portions that are freely pivotally connected and tailfins on rearward, outer portions of the wings. The tailfins are angularly offset from the general longitudinal axes of the wings so as to have an airfoil liftout angle of attack to the relative wind during flight which causes the wings to swing out to an extended configuration.
  U. S. Patent number: 4605183
  Filing date: Mar 22, 1984

EnterData

Take a toy glider, upsize it, add a Spratt control system and have yourself a hang glider.

• Hang Glider Weekly stops and then later morphs to Internet group; then morphing again in 2007 to this HangGliderHistory.com which is a daily communications wing. Faust's Final flight with as many passenger participants as are willing to help form a robust timeline of hang gliders' history.
   
• The United States Ultralight Association (USUA) has been around since 1985, dedicated to the representation of ultralight pilots and enthusiasts. In its capacity as the sole authority in the U.S. to administer the microlight section of the FAI sporting code under the supervision of NAA, USUA sanctions a national competition program and an international flight achievement program.

• In 1986 Roy Haggard and Glen Brown team up to found Vertigo Inc.    gRH1 

• Philip Jarrett's book 'Another Icarus' , Percy Pilcher and the Quest for Flight by Philip Jarrett. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C. 1987 ISBN 0-87474-556-X
   
•  

• Interview at once: Francis Rogallo, John Dickenson, Bill Moyes 
  [Large file: http://ozreportradiod.com      Smaller files: You Tube     and elsewhere]               Missing? Charles Richard, Barry Palmer and  Richard Miller.

• Abstract
  A system is disclosed wherein two or more lifting surfaces of an aerodynamic, hydrodynamic or other fluid dynamic device may be linked into a single system that in some circumstances improves the functioning of the device. An important species of the invention is the "Slave Tandem Freewing" airplane--an airplane with two flying surfaces (a wing and tail) both of which are free to rotate about a spanwise axis but are linked together in rotation by a linkage mechanism. Such an airplane exhibits significant improvements in performance and handling including attentuated responses to atmospheric turbulence, freedom from stall and spin, and higher than customary maneuverability. The same device may be built as submarine, boat or other fluid dynamic device.
  Slaved tandem freewing (STF) and device Edward H. Allen

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