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1969-1972 Shown: synopsis of
Tony's caption
- Tony's first Rogallo type was given his attention in "1969-72 and was
being flown on the Southdowns."
- "The strap hanging from the rear was to seat the pilot but was not used."
- "Constructed from bamboo and lashed together with waxed string in much
the same manner as the pioneer machines of the 1890's."
- Control was by weight shifting.
- His arms were supported by parallel bars and a horizontal cross bar for
hand grip.
- For major pitch changes the whole body could slide along the parallel bars.
- For fine pitch the lower body could swing forward or back.
- "The jpg image has been lightened and enlarged from the original photo."
Some commentary so far about the hang glider:
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EnterData
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- It is clear that his flight was well above ground-effecting and into solid
gliding.
- He was independent of Palmer influence or ski-kite influence.
- His craft seemed to live in the Standard Rogallo class (a fuzzily-defined
family of Rogallos that was begun with Palmer, broadcasted by Miller, spiced by
devices as the Prentice 1969, the Kiceniuk-Dickenson, the ski-kite-glider of
Dickenson, the Burns-Dickenson improvement, the Moyes standard, the Bennett
standard, the Kilbo Kite, the Eipper standard, the Seagull I and Seagull II,
etc. The class gained members from Miller's broadcasted plans of the Bamboo
Butterfly, of shared plans of Batso, of world-around shared and sold plans of
the Kilbo Kite, Seagull plans. The multiplied commercial kites put more
standards into the air, but the variety came from intrepid homebuilders until
the class diminished in choice and presence as safer non-standards came to be.
- Prentice in the above had both aspects of the control frame:
U-base-bar for some control and the parallel bar to explore centers of lift
control.
- Different from the Palmer where Palmer rejected the ski-kite trapeze alone,
he in 1960 chose to go forward to putting the trapeze at his back to limit rear
positioning while he explored centers of lift control along forward stay bars
doubling for the exploratory flying.
- So, both Palmer and Prentice had robust control frames as they were
pioneering. Both Palmer and Prentice BOTH the control base bar and also the
parallel bar. These two both knew slung sitting. These are just some of the
reasons to believe that the trapeze-only would have (actually did already exist
in ski-kites and water gliders before 1960 enough so that even Palmer was able
to have a rejection deliberately of such for his first aluminum-framed hang
glider. Ken's video stating he had no reasons to believe such would ever come
into hang gliding had not JD used the control frame part would need only study
the past before JD to see that such already existed in pre-Palmer and Palmer.
The pre-Palmer were in the ski-kites though those were sloppy gliders; the part
was in Spratt wing; the part was in 1921 Gottlob Espenlaub hang glider. The
Palmer and Prentice having both were just intimating that it was present and
easily would be wanted after a little bit more air time teasing: let's sit
through this as we are now comfortable; we have BOTH, and I'll decide to just
use the one like the Flat kiters did in 1960; presto done. Palmer
had the triangle base bar as a rear limiter; Prentice had the U's base bar in
front for part of the control system. Both used the pioneering long parallel
bars to practice; the sitting with confidence was to be after centers and
moments were discovered. Both were in their spaces pioneering the
standard class of Rogallo hang gliders using WING from NASA-Rogallo sourcing as
did Mike Burns of Australia for his Aerostructures
Ski-Plane (spelling?) in 1962; Mike
Burns was steeped in NASA material even as he deeply improved Dickenson's
kite-hang glider which also joined the standard Rogallo class. The Mike Burns
factor has not been well appreciated yet [EnterData
+].
- He was among the first persons to foot-launch a standard Rogallo hang
glider; the count at that time was about the count of 10, as the research is
still uncovering people affected by NASA, Palmer, and Miller plans: Palmer and
maybe friends, then Miller and friends for sure,
Jim
Hobson (Jan. 2, 1962 Rogallo wing hang
glider experiments in Dockweiler beach, west of El Segundo, CA, now flight park
operated by
Windsports)
of Lawrence Welk
or Art Linkletter
(reference needed; corner of Wilshire and Ocean in Santa Monica, CA.. about
1965; he visited Low & Slow office early on and showed photographs and
drawings, but was reluctant for some reason related to his professional life;
he was proud of his doings but also saw the explorations as somehow challenging
to his status in another sphere; he was somehow intimate with the Miller play
at Dockweiler beach), then Bill Moyes in
1967 or 1969 (reference to confirm his
towed vs
the ski-slope slide), then Dickenson parking lot crash
(still to be confirmed if this
free-foot-launch or release from tow for foot-landing)
[EnterData + ]
"after Moyes" (per pilot); Tony Prentice. The intrepid pilots of Utah, of
far places around the world in the 60s stemming from NASA influence, Paresev
hang glider influence, the WING of the Paresev both in function and ornamental
design ... probably were many in number. It is believed by this editor that the
pilots from the Palmer-Miller spheres of movies' and plans' influence combined
with the wide media presence of the NASA and NASA-Ryan gliders and Paresev
kite and hang glider netted so numerous of pilots in mid-60s that count at 1966
was far greater the zero-count of Dickenson-sphere people with the
Burns-Dickenson kite-hang glider. Not until Moyes in
1967 or 1969 (reference to confirm his
towed vs the ski-slope slide) was there a free foot-launch. So, the
class of standard foot-launched devices with their pilots was infinitely
present compare to the zero-presence in 1966 in the Australian sphere, pending
someone coming up with reports....we are open to hear. These were the
birthing scenarios of the first class of Rogallo hang gliders: the standard
Rogallo that ornamentally used the WING of NASA shown in Fleep and Paresev and
stiffened parawing for a sharp-angled nose for conical-wing format with
elementary control framing and elementary WING format, the essence of the first
class.
EnterData +
- That the strap was there indicated knowledge of hung seating.
- The frontal control base bar was derived from resource independent of the
Australian ski-kite flows.
- "The picture I saw of the Ryan Flex-wing and used to produce my first
Rogallo type glider ( New Horizon Book of Flying ) published in 1963."
"As the picture was published in 1963, the machine must have been around for
some time for it to have been used in such a book." Tony Prentice.
Editor: Yes, the picture went all around the world before that book was
published. The meaning of that picture ornamentally for design invention, and
process-wise for machine invention makes it impossible for valid claims of
invention to occur over that WING and vehicle and the function of that vehicle
which includes hanging-pilot and hanging-payload hang gliding, though it could
also be powered; engine-off and presto unpowered hang gliding.
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