![]() That means they fly 16 feet forward for every foot of altitude they lose when flying in calm air. Although gliders normally fly between 20 and 30 mph, they can reach speeds in excess of 80 mph and have a glide ratio of up to 16:1. Hang gliders are now made of aircraft aluminum or carbon fiber, stainless steel cable and Dacron (the same material sailboat sails are made of) and weigh between 45 lbs. ![]() Hang gliders have evolved from Francis Rogallo’s original flexible wing (as described in the History) into modern day flying marvels. Once you have tasted flight, you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been and there you long to return. Glide ratios in excess of 20:1 are possible, coupled with top speeds of about 62 miles per hour (100 km per hour), yet they can still launch and land at little more than walking pace. In addition to the now-traditional delta-shaped flexible wings, a new generation of rigid, tailless hang gliders have become popular, in which carbon fibre and other composite materials provide the required blend of lightness and strength. That is, for every three feet traveled forward, they would descend one foot. The original Rogallos with a seated pilot had glide ratios of about 3:1. Aircraft-quality materials began to be used, and glide performance increased steadily through improvements in wing and harness design. hang glidingHang gliders flying over a valley near Tolmin, Slovenia.© Valentyn Burlachenko/īy the early 1970s the sport had spread throughout the United States and into Europe. When a Rogallo wing was fitted with a swing seat by John Dickenson, in Sydney, Australia, the modern hang glider was born. They were able to control these notoriously unstable flat kites by using swing seats that allowed their entire body weight to effect pitch and roll-a great improvement on the parallel-bar method. Around the same time, water-ski showmen in Australia were flying on flat kites towed behind speedboats. On the dunes cheap materials such as bamboo and plastic sheeting were used, and the parallel-bar control method remained. The Rogallos’ kites had attracted attention because of NASA’s interest in using them for spacecraft retrieval. In the early 1960s enthusiasts in California were gliding down coastal dunes on homebuilt delta-shaped wings they had adapted from kite designs developed by Francis Rogallo and his wife, Gertrude. Modern hang gliding emerged toward the end of the 1960s. In these early designs the pilot hung from the armpits on parallel bars beneath the wings, swinging hips and legs to control roll and shifting back and forth to influence pitch. In the United States collaboration between Augustus Herring and Octave Chanute resulted in successful flights of a biplane hang glider from dunes in Indiana at the southern end of Lake Michigan in 1896. He published plans of his gliders and even supplied kits. In Germany, starting in 1891, Otto Lilienthal made several thousand flights before a fatal gliding accident in 1896. Takeoff is usually achieved by launching into the air from a cliff or hill. Hang gliders were developed by the pioneers of practical flight. ![]() Hang gliding, sport of flying in lightweight unpowered aircraft which can be carried by the pilot.
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