[KaiMartin]

I've posted about this before, but in Dan Poynter's book Hang Gliding: The Basic Handbook of Skysurfing (copyrighted in 1973) there are a couple pictures and text on page 189 (3rd printing). The photo captions are "The Barish Wing" and the "The Para Wing".

The text is titled - "Limp vs Rigid"

The last part of the text describes - ". . . the earliest activity of this sort took place [in] Lake Palcid, New York." That implies strongly that "paragliding" began before 1973. Likely earlier still since it took some time to write the book. And I think it's obvious from the para wing picture that rectangular ram air parachutes were what was first used for what is now called paragliding.

Apparently, the sailwing was used to fly from the mountains as early as 1965:

[wingspan33]

Hmmmmm, . . . That looks like a Barish Wing!

But now what does Rick do? He's got to research how many of those things took people out. And since that would have been before the internet he'll have to look in news papers' microfilm files!

And could it be that "para wings" are older than modern (Rogallo) hang gliders?

[Rick Masters]

WIND-TUNNEL INVESTIGATION OF
THE STATIC AERODYNAMIC CHARACTERISTICS
OF A MULTILOBE GLIDING PARACHUTE
by George M. Ware and Charles E. Libbey
Langley Station, Hampton, Va.
Langley Research Center
July 1968
http://2e5.com/kite/barish/19680018975_1968018975.pdf

A table lists the configurations and gives the following maximum L/D ratios:

Parawing: 2.1 (single keel)
Sailwing: 2.2
Parafoil: 3.3
Parawing: 3.3 (twin keel)
Parafoil: 4.0 (modified leading edge)
Volplane: 4.3



This list does not include Barish's work on rotating parachutes
https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/e3/26/6e/d53af6f0898ea7/US3298635.pdf

From the above reports, it appears that Barish's Sailwing did not have a more prominent place in NASA research because the twin keel Parawing out-performed it.
http://2e5.com/kite/barish/


LOW-SPEED WINDTUNNEL INVESTIGATION
OF ALL-FLEXIBLE TWIN-KEEL
TENSION-STRUCTURE PARAWINGS
by Paul G. Fournier
Langley Research Center
Humpton, Va.
http://2e5.com/kite/nasa/reports/19700031372_1970031372.pdf

Scott, apparently, no one could get high enough on the Volplane to kill themselves so they went to Rogallos instead. Rick
ps - I expect to hear from JoeF shortly...

[magentabluesky]

Before Joe there was Emil.

I distrust the Rogallo and for that matter the Irving Parawing because of the “luffing” of the sail when the angle of attack becomes less than about 20 – 25 (degrees) which may be caused by rough air. Low, Slow & Out of Control Vol. 1, Issue 2 July 1967

[wingspan33]

Before Joe there was Emil.

I distrust the Rogallo and for that matter the Irving Parawing because of the “luffing” of the sail when the angle of attack becomes less than about 20 – 25 (degrees) which may be caused by rough air. Low, Slow & Out of Control Vol. 1, Issue 2 July 1967

This is very interesting. Emil did not trust the Rogallo design because of its "full luff dive" problem. However, hang glider designers fixed that problem with luff lines and defined tips.

On the other hand, the parawing and its later derivations (i.e., the paraglider) still suffer from "luffing" (canopy collapse) "caused by rough air". For 51 years collapsible canopies have not overcome their "luffing" problem in rough (i.e., turbulent) air.

The designers of hang gliders found solutions in about 10 years time (or less?). Those solutions may not be absolute, but they work close to 100% of the time to prevent a hang glider from entering an unrecoverable dive/plummet to the ground.

No Frame, No Brain Indeed!

[wingspan33]

I also found this information last night. It's located here -

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domina_Jalbert

Seems Domina is the person who invented the "Multi-cell Wing Type Aerial Device" in 1964. But the article also states that "In 1957, Jalbert invented the ram-air airfoil and began testing and formalizing the design".

Another article here -

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parafoil

Speaks more about Domina Jalbert and parafoil design/invention.

Here's a page that shows his 1964 patent application - which was granted in 1966.

https://patents.google.com/patent/US3285546?oq=3285546

So, I suspect that Domina Jalbert is the effective originator of the paraglider. While he was born in Canada, early in life his family moved to the US. I think that means that the paraglider was derived from an American/US idea.

[Frank Colver]

The luffing and dive recovery of the "standard" Rogollo was improved by the reflexed keel but solved entirely by John Lake with the "Sailfeather".

With a properly adjusted Sailfeather a full luff dive, even from beyond vertical, would pull out and refill the sail to normal flight. This was before the defined tips and anti-luff lines etc.

Frank

[wingspan33]

Thanks Frank! It's nice to know that the "full luff dive" problem was addressed even before luff lines and defined tips.

I'm wondering was the Sailfeather unique to a specific make/model glider or was it something that could be adapted to fit to any hang glider?

I started flying in 1975 on an Eipper-Fomance 17' standard FlexiFlier. I'm not sure when the Lake Sailfeather came out, but I don't recall hearing about it back in the day here in NYS.

I would also mention that I never saw anyone in or even close to a full luff dive. It seems like the kind of thing a pilot would have to make happen.

[Rick Masters]

use ctl sft - to view
Francis Rogallo's rocket-powered hang glider.    
(Well, maybe not actually a hang glider...)
Full-luff dive, eat my dust!
https://patents.google.com/patent/USRE26380

[wingspan33]

A rocket powered hang glider?!!!

Talk about dangerous sports! But in this case probably meant for military use.