Click here ==>     You may add to this collection.      Yes!                                          Home      

Recent: Landfill Hang Gliding (a variation on Base hang gliding) where a landfill in a relatively flat region of the country (or world) is specifically shaped to provide favorable ridge soaring into the prevailing winds. Note that the glider pilots will always (thankfully) be on the upwind side of the stench.

Niche Hang Glider Activity       
Note and see: Most any kite type could be the foundation for a kite hang glider.
Self-Soar Association (S-SA) embraces all hang gliding niche activities on earth and beyond earth.  
The WHGA and WPGA are associated with S-SA.   The FAI CIVL handles some specialized sport activities.

People are grouping, communicating, and forming activities with specialized foci, applications, and purposes.  Involvement choices are extensive.  In each activity, the highest regard for proving safe operations is recommended. If a strong online group is not yet formed on your selected activity, consider running a group...and sending us your link.

  1. Discern how you will be participating in hang gliding; there are many ways and means!

  2. Discern why you will participate the way you will.

  3. Service?  Personal?  Commercial? Leadership? Supplier? Manufacturer? Avocation pilot? Competitive sports pilot? Author? Photographer? Communications? Inspection? Repair? LZ manager? Instructor? Promoter? Fan? Illustrator? Club officer? Driver? Meet volunteer? Researcher? Reporter? Test pilot? Test engineer? Test technician? Ground-school instructor? Retailer? Dealer? Celebration volunteer? Site seeker and negotiator?

  4. The ground is very hard.

  5. Newton's laws will apply to you.

  6. Learn all you can; keep safety at the top of actions.

  7. Manage risks at each moment.

  8. Keep situationally aware.  Others, traffic, weather, equipment, self fitness, ...

  9. Adjust reviews and practices in relation to how frequently you fly.
     

  10. Use the buddy system (be sure your buddy shares the safety and awareness habit!).
     

  11. Important, yet minority:  It is possible to fly a hang glider you make by yourself or with your buddies. You could build without spending a dime by using only materials from the trash. Or you may spend a million dollars to get the wing and situation you want.  Some take high joy in incremental iterative tinkering on new-for-them flight system designs that they or others will test and fly.  Some will aim to invent and modify hang glider systems and parts.  Others will aim to become manufacturers.  Some will live 24-7 embedded in hang gliding activities.
     

  12. Choices, styles, slants, preferences, interests, emphases: You might choose to purchase a hang glider and put all of your time and attention on flying. Some choose to fly only what they themselves build. Others know that they would not ever trust their own handcrafting. Study as much as you can; receive instruction in disciplines that will be used in your chosen activity and applications; keep a journal/flight log; reflect; be smart, patient, cooperative, wise, respectful, circumspect, communicative, and ever open to considering critiques by others. Know what has been done well and safely; know and learn from the craft and body injury incidents that have occurred. Inspect, check, practice; master what is needed for your particular hang glider activity. Consider written explicit well-organized checklists. Have fun again and again and again ... 
    Read Red on getting started.     

    Recall that FAI  will adjust itself once a niche sporting activity reaches their radar. That is, feel free to follow your truth, even if no one else is yet in your room.  Your joy will be attractive. Grow the winging ways you wish.   What are you dreaming?  Recall that hobby, experimenting, play ... need not react to FAI sporting. Staying in play, hobby, and experimenting are traditionally strong avenues of creativity and recreation.  Your flight log and birdman journal may be sacred scriptures.         JpF
    James Means in his Vol. 3 about 1896:

    Whichever branch of work
    is seriously undertaken
    by an individual,
    he may be sure that,
    while working upon his own specialty,
    he is helping those engaged in others
    toward their common goal.

     

       Add to this collection. Yes!    

Super-Modernized Standard Rogallo Hang Glider SMSRHG
moving the Charles Richards wing template (stiffened Rogallo wing)  with the 1908 cable-stayed triangle control frame into using advanced materials and safety tweaks, yet retaining the four-boom foldability and sharp nose angled airfoil for limited applications.
Fully limp governable ram-air inflated hang gliding founded on the Domina Jalbert mechanical invention. Much of "paragliding" is here, as term is used in 2000s (not 1960-2 where the Charles Richards wing--that mechanically essentially topped the "standard Rogllo hang glider" was called "paraglider" then...So, it will be a point of confusion if a 2008 paragliding pilot came upon the literature of 1961 in NASA. )..
Bus hang gliding (BHG).   Efficient carry-on-city-bus hang glider packs (framed-controlled sorts) are the coin of people doing bus hang gliding. They ride buses to and from flying sites.
Pos-inflate PG   piPG   These wings are string-controlled yet have positively-inflated wings with pressure adjusters.  
Paramontante Pilots   specialize in the evolutes of the Paramontante
Patent parade      Gain lift from following, understanding, identifying, mining, etc. the claims made in the world of kite patents, especially how such directly relates to hang gliding (primarily a kite system).
Foot-launchable powered glider. FLPHG, FLPAircraft, FLPSailplane  Power source specializations are occurring: electric, electric-solar, internal combustion engine ICE, jet and JetBug, power-beaming, solar-electric from power-beaming, laser power-beaming, etc.   Fuel, batteries, ultracapacitors, remote beamed energy, etc. are being considered. Purposes vary: training hops off flatland, barely soarable one-lift, returnable lift-assist units, long-session soaring sustaining, landing-choice expansion and assurance only, inaccessible launch solution, foot-launch race coursing, and more. 

Some have an eye to the fusion future. Energy densities guide development. Hybrids that derive energy from more than one source are being explored. Add pilot power at different stages is a fun sector of these efforts. Clubs, groups, collaborative efforts, and competitions are being explored. Early pioneers trying compressed air were generally disappointed at the energy density of compressed air. 

When HG beams (spars, TCF, ribs) resolve to be nearly 100% double-purposed parts (mechanical structure so formed to be at the same time an electrical-charge storage device), then further advances will be made. More: When all exterior surfaces of the HG and its system parts (harness, helmet, sail, etc) are electric-charge makers using ambient light as energy source, then breakthrough performance is envisioned. More: When nanotech materials churn near magic on these solutions, then control, thermal sensing, gust advantaging, and low-mass will bless hang gliding.  The opening of millions of launch and landing points is part of the eventual outcome of these efforts. Friendly rooftop to friendly rooftop?     Your notes are welcome:   Editor@UpperWindpower.com

Foot-launchable sailplanes.   These craft tend to be heavier than hang glider; and foot-launchable sailplane invite the use of aerodynamic controls. The weight of these will continually be reduced as nanotech materials come into play.
Fully limp governable Rogallo parawing hang gliders
Competition cross-country CXC at a meet or via time-termed Internet data transfer.
Rogallo-winged single surface RWSS modernized beyond the standard Charles Richards wing format
RW or Rigid Wing hang gliders
Three-axis aerodynamic surfaces control
Rotary-wing vertical-axis HGs

Gyro Hang Glider:
See Stephan Nitsch
(RIP) and also this tow-launched;  and  Hafner rotachute .

Another copy of towed foot-launched gyro hang glider:. Challenges: pre-rotation, assistant safety, number of blades: 1, 2, 3, 4, etc.

Someday: National gyro hang glider meet? Soaring records for GHGs?

http://www.rotaryforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=18026

Span-wise rotary-wing HGs. (a few types and arrangement styles). 

Types to distinguish:

  • 1. Single fixed wing,  Toys, ship sails, boat sails, signs, confetti,
  • 2. Split left and right wings with open center.  Toy gliders have occurred. Kites have occurred.
  • 3. Very different: cyclogiro. Very challenging... 

This niche sector has very few adherents. Glide ratio is very low, but  the low L/D can be significant for specialized hang gliding purposes.  The rotating wings challenge designers and users.  "Sweet spots" of design and use for recreation hang gliding seems to have evaded experimenters so far. Surrounding this sector: Fan wing, Magnus-effect gliders, Magnus-effect governable parachutes, top-to-back rotating rectangles of slightly S-curved paper, Magnus-effect rotary kites, and more. The elliptical leading edges here can also play; stability and control challenge, and anti-spin is a concern.  Landing has its challenges.

Related terms: radial-lift propeller, Magnus effect, rotating wing (spanwise), horizontal self-lifting wing, auto-rotation, autorotation, turbines, experimental aircraft, rotary wings, lift, circulation, cyclogiro (1930s NASA),  ...

Otto Lilienthal modernized mimics
Very long span  multi-person bunny-slope hang gliders (3 or more persons)
Recreational cross-country single-flight soaring. Honing many skills are involved here. RXC
Tail-less biplane hang gliders.   Consider Dunne; Espenlaub; Taras Kiceniuk, Jr., UFM, Larry Mauro, John K. Moody.    JWD1   imagesJWD2     GE1 

Replica hang gliders    Hang glider meets....homebuilt replica hang gliders only..  There will be groups specializing on just one hang glider.  Send your group's link to us for posting here. Others may concentrate on period hang gliders.

Quadraplane hang gliders Four planes. State of the art materials are spurring interest in short-span quadraplane hang gliders.  aka: quadruplane
Joined-wing hang gliders.  
See March 2009 issue of Lift.          Alex Morillo is forwarding join wing concepts.
Interested in joined wing hang gliders or ultralights, contact him.

Speed gliding  SG

Ground skimming specialists. Here practitioners aim to stay in ground effect from beginning to end of their hang gliding.  Various targets: Urban parks, short sled flying, snow-ski slope racing, morning nil-wind special-site low and slow ground skimming,

GEG, FGEG, Ground-effect hang gliding, ground-effect gliding.   See wiki: Ground-effect gliding

Canard hang gliders
Snow-ski slope racers. Some love the snow slopes and like racing through the air with touch and goes.
Aerobatics     Mitch McAleer Hang Glider Aerobatics     Hang Gliding Aerobatics @ Rob Kells Memorial Fly-In or      http://tinyurl.com/aerobaticshangglidingSEVERAL 
Hybrid positive-inflated-bladder-boned-limp hang gliders
Inflatable hang gliders  Here the wing is positively inflated. Some will specialize in tethering pilot only. Some will employ the 1908 Breslau territory gliding club's cable-stayed control frame.
Biplane hang gliders   There are many variations on the biplane theme. Watch for specialists that seem to stay refined over one branch of biplane hang gliders. For example, the Hang Loose replica people are focused on Lambie's Hang Loose and are not paying attention to the Chanute replica biplane. Double-surfaced airfoils may be the focus of one communicating group of hang gliders; others will aim for single-surface airfoils. Some will aim at using tensegrity for trussing. Others: inflatables.  Others will be just on Otto Lilienthal replica biplanes. Others will aim for polishing the Boy Mechanics plans.   Others will aim to use modern composites to the nth degree. Canard or tail? Zenithal HAT ? Tandem biplanes along Montgomery style? Joined wing?  Highly dimorphic? Hybrid man-powered biplane hang glider?  Sledding only?  Tail-less ala Icarus I, Icarus II ...UFM direction (Dunne or Espenlaub evolutes?)  Volmer Jensen 3-axis control 1940s' replicas?   And more. Fun sector of old and new .... What will nanotech materials bring to the biplane arena?    Wire-less biplane hang gliders?  Wire-less and strut-less biplane hang gliders?  Biplane limps and semi-limps?
Horton Brothers inspired pilot-in-wing (PIW) hang gliders (PIWHG)
Triplane hang gliders      There will be flying meets just for triplane hang gliders.  
                                          Your notes are welcome:   Editor@UpperWindpower.com
Flatland long gliding hang gliders. FLG  Here true flatland is used for running the wing. Then by skill, one gets longer and longer glides. Think of long jump of Track & Field athletics.
"I think this would be a very very fun thing for people to do. I could imagine this done on a high school football field. It would be great exercise as well. :)"   
See also: http://www.hanggliding.org/wiki/Ground-effect_gliding            Cousin with bicycling.
Zenithal-HAT hang gliders. Here a control surface is zenithally above the main wing; canard or tail is replaced by the HAT or high airfoil "thing". Though Lovejoy's High Tailer was not quite a ZHATHG, such inspired one designer to the ZHAT to replace canard or tail.     Near: See "high hats" thread in OZ Report.
Recreational gliding using purchased hang gliders. Significant attention my manufacturers continues to provide quality certified hang gliders and related gear.
Microlight trike hang gliding.  Here a tricycle is used for launching or landing. Some assistive engine or motor is used to get to free-flight gliding or soaring altitude.   BMAA        There are heavies and there are some very low-mass efforts here.  

Trike flying   in several species:

  • Powered very low mass.
  • Powered ultralight heavier.
  • Unpowered three-wheel takeoff and landing

 

Cage paragliding      See also the 2005 Icare for some ideas...
Hike-up-only potential-energy users. Up-and-downer athletes aiming at physical exercise, some aiming at meditation flight, some wanting to hike and then fly down...smelling the roses and studying ground insects on the way, etc. Many varieties here. Avoids retrieves, truck ups, etc.      "but I love the idea. I think I did about 10 hikes up to the top of "Little Black" with about 10 paragliding flights (2 minutes each) in a single day when I was learning. Furthermore, hiking up a steep slope is exercise, while hiking down may carry a greater risk of injury."
                                          Your notes are welcome:   Editor@UpperWindpower.com     
Cross-country fliking. Soar, stop, soar, stop, soar, stop...etc. Various specialties here. Self-kiting, solar-energy recharging for driving motor for secondary launches, etc.
Replicas:  Percy Pilcher, Chanute, Montgomery, Lilienthal, Maxim, Waterman, Breslau territory gliding club HGs, etc. Groups of people with just one replica type in vision.
Tandem hang gliding. Some specializing in instruction, some in recreational tandem, some in professional stunt tandem, etc.      For example, Fred Ballard gets high giving introductory tandem HG flights; he has specialized in this realm.   
Zero-weight hang gliders where the empty weight of the glider is zero. Futurisms hold sealed voided 3-D nano-matrices for "solids" (early precursors: aerogels). But for now we have hydrogen and helium personal blimps. When we add the pilot, then the system is still heavier than air.    See differently where the gross all-up flying weight is less than zero.
Base hang gliding. Special hobby of hang gliding from human-built structures. High inclines, artificial slopes, building roofs, bridges, towers, urban nil-wind precision short base flights, etc.  Tower jumpers. Shed jumpers. Skyscraper roof-based hang glider launch area.  Carl Boenish.  Otto Lilienthal. 
                                          Your notes are welcome:   Editor@UpperWindpower.com    See and perhaps post a description of a HG action to be done by using an artificial launch ramp: http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=23155

Landfill Hang Gliding (a variation on Base hang gliding) where a landfill in a relatively flat region of the country (or world) is specifically shaped to provide favorable ridge soaring into the prevailing winds. Note that the glider pilots will always (thankfully) be on the upwind side of the stench. 

Hang gliders set with kinetic and visual flight simulators. Specialists give an increasing number of people a vicarious hang glider flight experience. Pilots also get training in such simulators.
Human-power input to hang glider flight system.  Here people aim at using human power in various way in hang glider flight systems. One focus is human effort to tow. Another is to use human effort to recharge batteries or ultracapacitors during fliking  or XOHG or pre-flight pauses. And more. The succes of HPA continues. The advance toward soaring HPA is part of the challenge with respect to hang soaring. Daedalus.

http://www.ihpva.org/Air/

                                          Your notes are welcome:   Editor@UpperWindpower.com

Propellers in hang gliding       Here people specialize in serving the hopes and adventures of hang gliders that use propellers in some way.    
 http://www.google.com/patents?id=yb83AAAAEBAJ
Cross-ocean hang gliding:  XOHG  This realm is futuristic despite the various crossing of water that have been done. The challenge is cyclic launching to soaring from the water surface with stabilize gear. Many schemes are being considered. Anne Quemere is paving some way toward these matters.

Anne's effort's intersection with hang gliding?
1. One day fliking across the Pacific and Atlantic oceans in hang gliders will occur. Anne did kite across the Altlantic; now she is taking a bid on the Pacific Ocean. She is tracing paths that will be helpful in planning the hang gliding fliking trips. The logistics of her efforts will hold gems for those who will pioneer the cross-ocean hang gliding flikes.

2. The example of kiting across oceans has a strong impact on some hang glider planners.

3. The kites Anne is using are rooted in Domina Jalbert's invention of ram-air inflated airfoil. One format for crossing the oceans by hang gliding may be the same type of wing, probably modified so that landings on the water with the hang glider wing will provide positive retained flotation; thus a combination of ram-air inflation and positive kept inflation may be part of the successful hang gliding solution. However, another considered format for the hang gliding solution very well may be a high-performance air-beamed hang glider flight system that will be able to self-kite off the water surface in repeat cycles while being able to reel-in all of its own self-kiting gear (de-powerable water anchoring chute) somewhat like Jack Lambie suggested for land fliking in Ground Skimmer after a set of self-kiting methods were described in Low & Slow and also in Richard Miller's Without Visible Means of Support in a dual-kite dynamic-soaring system.

4. Anne with her boat Oceankite (its name) is hung below her wings. Though she is not "falling" as in hang gliding, her drag and inclinations in the fluid water provide relative to the wind a net thrusting that lets her travel. This is a close cousin to hang gliding and for some this whole matter teases the advance of the skills and materials that will permit independent cross-ocean hang glider fliking.

5. Anne's showing non-fuel use of the wing that is iconic in hang gliding's paragliding sector will bring increased familiarity to the iconic wing. This matter is suspected to make the world more at home with the PG space and thus also hang gliding space as PG is a subset of hang gliding.

6. Already there is a theoretical examination started that compares the speed that might be obtained by cross-ocean hang gliding flikes compared to Anne's kiting methodology. Will hang gliding cross-ocean fliking occur faster or slower than Anne's kite-sailing method?

Expectation notes: Hang gliding across oceans is expected to be done with landings on the water where the pilot will sleep and care for other survival tasks. It is expected that there will be many up and down cycles to achieve the crossings. Solo yes, but there will also be two-person hang gliding crossings. There are several types of hang gliding crossings expected: a) Self-kiting launches; b) Powered-assist launches with power provided by storing energy from pilot, wave, wind, sun, hydrogen-from-water-sun. The challenge of materials is high, as the salty and wet environment will beckon advances and high care. Staying safe while asleep on the water's surface will attract high sophistication in environmental awareness and communications. The hang gliding challenge will draw the best that science and technology will bring.

Wishing Anne the best in her present bid to cross the Pacific Ocean by kite ! She launched on the day of a political breaktrhrough in the USA as she kited beneath the Golden Gate Bridge. As the Statue of Liberty was a gift from France, I see Anne Quéméré as a gift to kiting and hang gliding.

                                          Your notes are welcome:   Editor@UpperWindpower.com

Solar-energy-assisted-launch hang gliding. These people aim at launch assist by converting the sun's radiation to drive a launch motor. Many varieties of specialized means  are here.
  • Specializations within this sector.
    • The hang glider itself has surfaces that convert the sun's energies.
      • The motor is carried throughout the flight.
      • The motor is released for glide back after soaring altitude is reached.
      • Sustaining soaring by use of in-flight solar-recharge and direct solar-energy use.
    • Batteries or ultracapacitors are recharged from ground-based solar-conversion devices.
      • Motor is carried throughout the flight.
      • Motor is released for glide back to club center after soaring altitude is reached.
    • Power-beaming. The hang glider's motor is powered from energy received from a set of power beams from ground or aerial devices.
    • Corded launch assist. The hang glider is connected by electric cord that stays connected during the launch. The cord might ride up a balloon tether as the glider climbs in a circle. Once altitude is reached, the cord may slide back down the balloon tether for use by another club member. 
    • Scooter towing launch of hang glider could receive power from solar energy recharge.

    The above is not at all complete. Related: Larry Maurro, Solar Riser, "Sunseeker flew from California to Kittyhawk," electric hang glider, electric aircraft, Electraflyer (consider recharging by solar means), solar-charged electric drive,  Explore: Eric Raymond

    Futurism: Every surface exposed to direct or indirect light of hang glider system is double-purposed so that no net mass is costed for having solar-energy conversion occurring to charge ultracapacitors (which themselves are structurally double-purposing, so that again no net mass is costed for having energy storage. Then have optimized electric motor and optimized propeller. Use the system to launch off any spot on earth...land, water, building roof ...to get to soaring altitude. Soar. Be collecting solar energy during soaring. Use the stored solar energy to sustain soaring, to return to home, to quickly clear sink, to assure landing area reach, to cross oceans, to flike, to achieve effective trekking.  The ultracapacitors double-purposed will last a lifetime. The nanotech construction will be UV resistant and last a lifetime. Ultra lubricants in seal motor will have low friction cost. And more. Send in your ideas:  Editor@UpperWindpower.com

                                              Your notes are welcome:   Editor@UpperWindpower.com

Competition hang gliding using purchased hang gliders from  Former HGMA Members or Current HGMA Members   The HGMA is the second or so. The first included others, like Omega Hang Gliders..
See: Markowski's Hang Glider's Bible.    For example, Davis Straub is a competition hang glider pilot.

Competition sport hang gliding via FAI classes.

Morphable wings have inroads to most niche sectors of hang glider activity. However, there are those who specialize in morphing means. Variable billow and variable geometry are mechanical principles known in early aviation. But modern tactics and materials are opening a host of new opportunities for morphing wings during flight.
                                          Your notes are welcome:   Editor@UpperWindpower.com
Communications with cousin activity groups:   Specialize in tracking and communicating with PWCA, CIVL, NACs, clubs, associations, etc.  and with leaders of niche hang gliding activity.   Maintain databases, glossaries, archived copies of correspondence, photographs, plans, manuals, etc.  There is room here for many persons around the world.  Perhaps organize and spread the tasks among cooperating persons. 
  • Accident and incident collecting.    
  • Interface with cousin activities
  • Finding references
  • Work to feed correcting references in order to sharpen hang gliding history. The fuzzy realm of history is ever full of positive opportunities to correct statements, improve understanding, make more clear something.    For example, local excited tinkerers often claim mechanical global invention over something when they are only finding for themselves something that was already globally invented; honoring the local excitement while bringing forward the richer history is an exciting niche activity taken on by some as a hobby or profession.
Busable hang gliders and the busable hang gliding culture
Master "Safe-Splat" tactics, devices, methods.      Discuss:  HERE.
Tiny corner:  See what young Cromwell Dixon did and consider the tiny niche corner of hang gliding up or down through the air using LTA gases and shaped inflated wings. 
Valley back-and-forth hang gliding. Ravine back-and-forth hang gliding.
Wing Running       World Wing Running Association   
 
Negative-weight hang gliders where the hang glider is lighter than ambient air. Glidable shaped wings...

Not shaped for gliding up or down, but near: White Dwarf.  "So Bill and Reed moved the White Dwarf to Madras, OR, assembled and inflated it Sept. 30, 2000, and first flew it Oct.  3"
Preamble to this HG activity are the muscle-powered ultralight blimps: An introduction to muscle powered ultra-light gas blimps : in all their glory
by Robert J Recks (collection of published articles)

le vol du Zeppy 2/2  This is operated mostly at neutral buoyancy and is thus not with any major role of gliding up or gliding down. Its shape is not for the gliding.    However, in 1944, Domina Jalbert's patent had flexible wings on a buoyant keel that would give good gliding up or gliding down, depending on the buoyancy set.  Water gliders are especially using the principle of changing from positive to negative buoyancy for gliding up or down. Major commercial gliding airships are being proposed. There will be a niche association of recreational users of alternating-buoyancy hang gliders.  See: The Gravity Aircraft  And then consider hybrid hang glider.

Make me fly   More of a non-hang-glider role ...  But consider if shape and/or wings were applied for gliding up when more buoyant and gliding down when net weight is heavier-than-air. When role is for gliding up or gliding down, then design changes.
                                          Your notes are welcome:   Editor@UpperWindpower.com

Cable Hang Gliding     http://getaway.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=17475

Nano   Some people are deciding to focus on bringing into hang gliding advances from nanotechnology, nano-machines, nano-materials.  Some of our community occasionally visit this discipline; others are working diligently to find how nano-chemistry, nano-physics, and nano-design might bless hang glider flight systems.  For example, when one finds "A carbon nanotube is capable of transporting cargo and rotating like a conventional motor" in the literature, then one might deeply search for ways such matters might affect one or more aspects of hang gliding.
                                          Your notes are welcome:   Editor@UpperWindpower.com

Hang glider test technician.  Consider DHV and HGMA.   1933  
One day each city will be able to support a hang glider technician.
Hybrid Hang Gliders
Urban Short-Flight Hang Gliding   
Ornithopting-Involved Hang Gliders     
Pre-Hang Gliding Winging.        Universal winging (UW).  
Aero-tow specialist
Friends-tow specialists
Scooter-tow specialists
Bungee-tow specialists
Tandem Piloting 
Electric direct-cord launch-assist hang gliding
Hang gliding communications instructor
Tether-Pilot-Method Specialist
Fitness Flyers ...    Many niche scenarios form the panorama.

Keep open the door to the niche hang gliding activity that values hang gliding as fitness activity at various levels; one level is to hug a 50 m high slope that invites say 20 takeoffs, 20 glides, and 20 landings, and 20 carry-ups in a session. Intensity and profundity can be gamed in many ways in such a scenario. Bob Bendetson, well positioned script writer, has about 12,000 such flights off a mere 6 to 7 m slope and claims to enjoy the activity immensely to good personal benefit. A very long list of skills are open for strong mastery in such a scenario. He also stores a second hang glider for his flights in the thermal Sylmar site.
 
Pilot-in-wing specialist
Platform for advanced sailmaking techniques
Urban-trash hang glider. Enthusiasts require that their hang glider is constructed only from ambient urban found trash.
Education-based hang glider: High school class project. Specialists form lesson plans that involve mathematics, history, materials, safety, low-mass construction principles, physics, weather, aerodynamics, communications, etc.
Authoring    Ever good articles are needed to enrich the many facets of the hang glider universe. Take a topic and explore it to the point where you generate an article that will bless all. There are thousands of hang glider topics needing fresh attention by a caring researcher.
Mechanical Invention    The challenges in the hang glider world invite further mechanical invention. Huge sectors of mechanical invention are yet to be discovered that will bless the hang glider world.
Ornamental appearance design invention (distinguish from fundamental mechanical invention which is very different).
 End products ever need to be polished for appearance. Ornamental design tinkering that uses the mechanical inventions of others is an important hang glider world activity that makes pleasant the various hang gliding activities.  For instance, the cable-stayed triangle control frame for hang gliders was mechanically invented at least by 1908 clearly, but probably before.  But the ornamental design of belly bars, streamlined bars, particular finish, tweaked sizes, etc. for appearance change are important. Take what was mechanically invented and polish the appearance of the item, subassembly, or full assembly. Recommended: Credit the mechanical inventors that may be involved in the function and principle upon which your ornamentation lives. Notice that active protection of mechanical invention beneath your invented appearance invention could require legal respects before a functioning product of your appearance design could be commercialized. In turn, if you gain a sharp ornamental appearance patent that sells the eye of consumers, then you could prevent an underlying mechanical inventor from using the particular appearance ornament that you have found.  Trade in good spirits and win.
Hang glider sailmaker     
Foundational activity!  The evolution of hang glider sails is not a done deal. Advances keep showing their heads here. New methods of making sails, new materials, and new functions of the sail keep this activity sector open for innovation and polished skills. Threads that are themselves solar-energy converters are tickling the future of hang gliding. Dynamic soaring via smart gust utilization will be affecting  HG sails. Smart nanotech films will be changing hang gliding. Mass production methods continue to evolve as hang gliding becomes a foundation for many practical applications.
Harness designer, maker, repair, custom tailor.    Niche HG activity with distinct pilots spells an industry inviting dedicated workers worth their charges. Low-mass functionality? Streamlining? Comfort?  Safety? Activity fit? Protection? Materials?   Smart materials?  Temperature control? Moisture control? Dependability? Inspection? Appearance? Learning use of... ?   Teaching use of ...?  Dealing? Matching?  History of ...?   Patents?  Emergency procedures? Double-purposing the parts to communications, energy conversion, control?  Light? Visibility? Advertising?  Colors?  Surviving in fliking?   XOHG harness systems? 
Porosity control for HG.    Research, innovation, experimentation, calculation, materials, triggers, gust-interface, niche uses in HG.   
Platform for generating electricity during soaring session.  >> Play a part.
Thermal visibility.     Prediction, site mapping, instruments, historical statistics, timing, measuring, communicating, affect on hang gliding experiences, affect on safety, grading hang gliding sites, effects on traffic, affects on competition, ... (Send in your ideas!)
Launch-ramp design and construction.   Many niche flight activities may well use the services of designers. Flatland to mountain ...   Maximizing the assets of a site is a challenge. Funding construction? Maintenance? Management?
Urbanizing hang gliding.   A very long-term activity involves reforming urban environments and hang glider systems so that safe and useful results arrive to society.  The neighborhood roof systems, the aerial wires, the charge systems, the various kinds of hang gliding activity, the airspace rules, and more ...form part of the coming future of hang gliding within the urban now-congested environment.  Who will work on the challenges here? Experiments?  Bringing win-win to all parties.
Moon-City Hang Gliding.   Some people will choose to design hang gliding solutions for use inside Moon City. The low gravity will permit hang glider solutions that differ from earth systems.     
Sport inventing ... find niche corners of hang gliding and make a sport from such.
  • Niche studies:  There are huge corners of hang gliding technology and history that have barely received careful attention by people. Consider taking a tiny aspect of hang gliding history and do a great job in opening up that tiny aspect; share it with the entire world and thus contribute to what is available to all.  Pick your own, but here are some ideas:
    • What was the state of the mechanical arts in aviation on July 29, 1963?  Help expose such state; all such arts were available to people for use in their own builds without having to invent anything; what was maximally possible without having to do one iota of global mechanical invention at that moment in history?
    • Biographies on all the winner of the Flex-Wing Gold Air Award?   Much work is open for people therein.
    • Expand the list of hang gliders that were in the hang gliding meet in Breslau in 1908 where the standard anachronistic-Rogallo hang glider was using the triangle control A-frame cable-stayed.
    • Write an article and submit it to World Hang Gliding Association  in Hang Glider Magazine.
    • etc.
 
 
1800s  hang gliders     Study, replicate, modernize, display, preserve, circulate in schools, describe, and publish?
1900-1920  hang gliders 
1921-1959  hang gliders 
1960-1975  hang gliders 
1976-1999  hang gliders 
2000-2008  hang gliders 
2009 hang gliders 
2010 hang gliders
Add notes directly to the world's Hang Gliding Training Manual.   Tiny note or longer note!
 

Add to this collection. Yes!

SPECIAL APPLICATIONS OF HANG GLIDERS
Specialized purposes and applications

Photography     Specializations:  Stills, motion, editing, master movies, history of small and large happenings
  • Cams for flying sites
  • Recording the history of one's hang glider designing, construction, testing, flight testing, celebration.
  • Recording images to append to one's flight log
  • Coverage of gatherings of hang glider meetings, events, competitions.
  • Recording the full spectrum of images to support a club's special launch and landing areas.
  • Community-relations photography. Helping to keep hang gliding in the public's blessing.
  • On-hang glider cameras. The art of get a great variety of views is ever challenging.
  • Scenery capture from the air. Aerial photography.
  • Remote control RC cameras catching the hang glider activity.
  • Weather photography
  • Social photography
  • Craft inspection photography.  Detail. X-ray. Fluorescent.  Tracking. Shape.
  • Mapping.
  • Agricultural assessments
Advertising  
Bird care  
Dream fulfillment for the specially challenged amongst us: blind, aged, youth,
Education.  Exhibition, demonstration, visiting speaker, bridge nations,
Inspection of hang gliders' condition    In what condition is this hang glider?  Tracking the shape of a hang glider?  Status of flying cables? Sun hours? Challenge of knowing the fatigue status of parts invites creative inspecting. Managing risks. Flight log interpretation. Service persons? Flying cable condition? Unseen places? Corrosion?  Wear? Cracks? Tears? Best practices?  Monitoring real-time status of safety-critical parts. Checklist fulfillment systems.
Some people will make a hobby out of developing secondary uses of hang gliders:
  • Secondary uses of hang gliders?   Your continued ideas are invited:  Editor@UpperWindpower.com  Example images are also welcome.
    Some sharing so far:
    • Shade maker
    • Tenting for naps or overnights
    • Wind-break
    • Soaking in sun for converting radiation to electricity to charge batteries and ultracapacitors
    • Soak in sun to for converting to electricity for  splitting water to get hydrogen
    • Hold advertisements for non-profit and for commercial purposes
    • Format for unmanned kiting
    • Morph to land-sailing vehicle
    • Decorate a home or building or place
    • Rig several hang gliders into a massive electricity-generation machine.
    •  

 

Some special sorts of hang gliders: 
Missing sorts, please send to Lift@HangGliderMagazine.com
  • Temporary hang gliders
  • Disposable hang gliders
  • Disappearing hang gliders
  • Invisible hang gliders
  • Virtual hang gliders
  • Mental hang gliders
  • Digital hang gliders
  • Fantasy hang gliders
  • Art hang gliders
  • Invisible hang gliders
  • Giant hang gliders
  • Tiny hang gliders
  • Toy hang gliders
  • Payload-transport hang gliders
  • Very high high-hat hang gliders
  • Vintage hang gliders
  • String-controlled framed hang gliders
  • String-controlled non-compression-member hang gliders
  • Frame-controlled hang gliders
  • Tandem-wing hang gliders
  • Biplane hang gliders
  • Thin airfoiled hang gliders
  • Thick airfoiled hang gliders
  • Very slow hang glider
  • Very fast hang gliders
  • Monoplane rigid wing hang gliders
  • Tri-wing hang gliders
  • Four-wing hang gliders
  • N-wing hang gliders with N stepping over O, 1, 2, 3, 4, ...
  • Stacked-wings hang gliders
  • Hang gliders for leg-less pilots
  • Hang gliders with frame double purposing as ultracapacitor for e-assist
  • Non-collapsible hang gliders
  • Collapsible hang gliders
  • Best-known-materials-saturated hang gliders
  • Trash-tech-built hang gliders
  • Tensairity-dominant hang gliders
  • Tensegrity-dominant hang gliders
  • Autogiro hang gliders
  • Seedwings hang gliders
  • Moyes hang gliders
  • Wills Wills hang gliders
  • A-I-R hang gliders
  • Chanute hang gliders
  • Lilienthal hang gliders
  • Paresev hang gliders
  • Seagull hang gliders
  • Omega hang gliders
  • Horten hang gliders
  • For-display-only hang gliders
  • Used hang gliders
  • New hang gliders
  • Homebuilt hang gliders
  • Do-not-fly-me hang gliders
  • Damaged hang gliders
  • Certified hang gliders
  • Commercially-manufactured hang gliders
  • One-of-a-kind hang gliders
  • Unique hang gliders
  • Triangle-control-frame-using hang gliders (since at-least Wenham forward)
  • Palmer hang gliders
  • Miller hang gliders
  • Bamboo-based hang gliders
  • Carbon-fiber-intensive hang gliders
  • Cheap hang gliders
  • Expensive hang gliders
  • Speed-gliding hang gliders
  • Flikable hang gliders
  • Pilot-carryable hang gliders
  • Non-pilot-carryable hang gliders
  • Tandem hang gliders
  • All-black hang gliders
  • All-white hang gliders
  • Fine-art displaying hang gliders
  • King-posted hang gliders
  • Double king-posted hang gliders
  • King and Queen posted hang gliders
  • Rogallo-wing hang gliders
  • Inflatable hang gliders
  • Named hang gliders
  • Unnamed hang gliders
  • Affordable hang gliders
  • Demonstration hang gliders
  • Flight park rentable hang gliders
  • Flight school hang gliders
  • Training hang gliders
  • Simulator hang gliders
  • Kite-glider hang gliders
  • Non-kite hang gliders
  • Hydrophilic hang gliders
  • Anti-hydrophilic hang gliders
  • Ski-kite hang gliders
  • Water-repellant hang gliders
  • Floatable hang gliders
  • Water-surface relaunchable hang gliders
  • Group-owned hang gliders
  • Individually-owned hang gliders
  • Club-owned hang gliders
  • Leasable hang gliders
  • Special-occasion hang gliders
  • Loaned hang gliders
  • Borrowed hang gliders
  • Wrecked hang gliders
  • Tail-less hang gliders
  • Tail-less biplane hang gliders
  • Russian hang gliders
  • Chinese hang gliders
  • African hang gliders
  • German hang gliders
  • French hang gliders
  • NASA hang gliders
  • ___(nation-source) hang gliders
  • ___(brand sourced) hang gliders
  • ___(designer's name) hang gliders
  • In-repair-shop hang gliders
  • Refreshed-flying-cabled hang gliders
  • Due-for-inspection hang gliders
  • Wonderful hang gliders
  • Cable-leading-edge-based hang gliders (cable may be base for other structure)
  • For-super-conservative-airs-sled-ride-flight-only hang gliders
  • For-commercial-tasking hang gliders
  • For-urban-base-jumping-education-flying hang gliders
  • Twinkling-sail hang gliders
  • VLM hang gliders  (very-low-mass)
  • Mono-material hang gliders
  • Aerogel-based hang gliders
  • Cavexity-tech-based inflatable hang gliders
  • Pilot-power-assisted hang gliders
  • Solar-energy-conversion sailed hang gliders
  • My hang gliders
  • ______(owner's name) hang gliders
  • GEO hang gliders (meant only for staying in ground effect for GEG). Ground-Effect-Only.
  • XC hang gliders
  • Competition hang gliders
  • Recreational hang gliders
  • Hobby hang gliders
  • For-sale hang gliders
  • Shock-injured hang gliders
  • UV-degraded-sail hang gliders
  • Tuned hang gliders
  • Asymmetrical hang gliders
  • Canard hang gliders
  • Joined-wing hang gliders
  • Circular-cylinder-based hang gliders
  • Tailed hang gliders

 

Add to this collection. Yes!    Send note tot he editor of HangGliderHistory to add your HG niche. Thanks.      editor@energykitesystems.net