[JoeF]

Email copied to Mark Woodhams
Graeme Henderson, hopefully also to JD
Tony Prentice
Bob Kuczewski
Frank Colver
and also to editor at USHPA.

June 12, 2012
Yet some clearing is needed
Hi Mark,
Corrections and filling would be neat for your follow-on publishing:
1. FLIGHT fully described the intricacies of "the control method" in its first issue. So, J.D. did not invent such.
2. In 1800s patent by Beeson, the control method was fully implicated and share with world using flexible-wing keeled kite-glider.
3. Background inside J.D. fully had Benson …and first half of the 1950s Bensen published and showed the control method to the world. And J.D. was embedded in the Benson flow; such embedding ought to become part of the full story. Again, the control method as already ancient for aviation, gliders, and hang gliders.
4. The control method was embedded in the Mike Burns kite-glider before J.D.
5. Palmer knew the ancient control method and explored it.
6. John Worth …again prior to J.D. fully materialized the control method with triangle control frame.
7. In Breslau in 1908 gliding club hang glider foot launched had the exact cable-stayed A-frame with pilot hung from keel behind the A-frame. Again, J.D. had no invention on control method or wing.
8. Low & Slow morphed to Hang Glider Weekly and not to Ground Skimmer nor Hang Gliding. Please correct that also. Thanks. You might explore the over 100 issues of Hang Glider Weekly
9. Rogallo's patent included the option of stiffening; there is no way around that when accurate; however, such overlapped then the aspects of earlier invention as you note in your works.
10. The long and enduring work of Rogallo had such impact and following that there was every good reason to give his tag to the wings that ensued. You come close to seeing that, but the drive to tilt to JD via GH seemingly won't let you see the world-wide publication impact that let the Rogallo tag be valid. Rogallo's conferences, hangar demonstrations, memos, letters, speeches, responses, etc. for two decades brought a synergy that earned him the tag for a large sector of the HG renaissance. The Rogallo impact gave root and platform for the JD tinkering flow. The Rogallo impact gave cause for the Low & Slow energy that put Rogallo wing plans into 23 nations. Rogallo was our "Doctor" before we barely knew the JD tickle. To overlook the facts of impact in the world just to satisfy the extreme GH-love-for-JD energy would continue the travesty of false-invention accolades that stream from the GH-now-Woodham's ink. Yelling does not erase the historical impact facts about Rogallo. Errors in the GH-pushed FAI accolades may never be undone to the loss of the fullness of hang glider history; but you, Mark, still have a chance to bring balance to the story; be very careful of the GH tilt for JD, if you ever want to appreciate a balanced history of HG.
11. There is more of Berck Beach happenings in 1904c knowable for flexible wing hang gliders. As community, we all might dig it all up in time. Best of findings to you, Mark.
12. GH has persevered, but he carries some deep interpretative errors that you seem to copy. Dare to put equivalent energy to John Worth, just for one, and see what occurs! How Worth was missed in your text is still a mystery; the Benson aura in JD is also severely missed, yet the matter is fertile and would wipe out the "control method" A-frame false-claims in the GH text.
13. Pendulum mass-moving control of gliding beneath parasol wing was known fully by Cayley; no one could after that point invent the control method.
14. J.D. saw the stiffened Ryan Aeronautical wing and morphed a wing in his tinkering. Countryman Aussie Mike Burns saw the NASA wings and papers and produced nearby prior to JD a kite-glider (Burn's terms). that used the ancient control method.
15. Full appreciation of Effinger would be nice.
16. The impact of the 1960 PM article would be neat to bring to center.

Keep up the good work; and there is hope that you will find ways to correct texts and bring balance to the history. There is still time… Some young authors have challenge ahead to bring out the rich more accurate history of hang gliding.

Lift,
Joe Faust
[Also published in Oz Report and also in group HangGliderHistory]