Why a Mike Burns image and note above in Jim Hobson's thread?
Here is why, in part:
1. Thomas H. Purcell Jr. had Flightsail maiden flight in October of 1961. Then he modified to second version for start of 1962 and quickly started to sell plans to the world.
2. Over a year later one will find the Mike Burns story for April 1963 maiden flight for the SkiPlane in Australia.
3. BUT, at some point in 1962 James Hobson did deep research from beginnings of 1900 to his day. Among the research was a copy of the Flightsail (Plans) that he lent to me in February of 1972.
See a snip from the borrower's sheet returned to Jim upon the completion of my borrowing:
Attachment:
JimHobsonHadFlightSailPlans.jpg [ 60.48 KiB | Viewed 10303 times ]
Jim was one of the few private-citizens in the world of 1960-end of 1962 to see the renaissance in flex-wing hang gliding that would not stop growing. Purcell was a tow-launch pioneer in the private sector following corporate leadership. But the three seeding fathers: Prentice, Palmer, and Hobson !!! Hobson had a completely finished craft using A-frame; he published nationally and with some international subscribers at least twice in Sport Aviation in 1962 of the well-known and received Experimental Aircraft Association; he did broadcast showing of his hang glider on national TV in the Lawrence Welk Show before 1962 finished. He was instructed by his research into early 1900s hang gliding literature, the NASA literature, and the Flightsail plans of the Purcell tow radiance. But Jim would foot launch a very very simply hang glider in 1962. He was a professional communicator as producer-director of Lawrence Welk Shows; and it turns out he was a very keen communicator of his hang gliding hobby...sharing his doings in so many ways with effect into Self-Soar Association, Low & Slow, later Joe Greblo visits, and now in his death he returns to help found a solution to the sleepy history channel of the hang gliding community, as his funeral helped to inspire the inauguration of a broad-based solution to the
GH Test in the founding of the
Flex-Wing Hang Glider Gold Air Awardby the World Hang Gliding Association. If the hang gliding community will diligently take the
GH Test and work the Gold Air Award, then it is possible for the hang gliding community to get out of a sleep that slows creativity in the craft and activity. Each person in hang gliding will have some relationship with the
GH Test and the Award and award systems-----just what will be the nature of each person's relationship is up to them; each is 100% responsible for what occurs in their hang gliding world.
Each of the known three mentioned seeding "fathers" (Prentice, Palmer, Hobson) do not detract from flex-wing fathers of the two or the corporate-engineering world nor of the "fathers" of yesteryear. But a special fathering flavor seems to arrive in Prentice, Palmer, and Hobson, each in their own way. Later, others would father local branches of flex-wing activity. We see Purcell radiance go further. Then we see a kind of Purcell mimic or echo or parallel in Mike Burns and his partner Richard Swinbourne in 1962-3 with a maiden manned flight of their proven models...on an April day in 1963; then even later in Sept 1963 we see a maker tinker up a ski kite adapting as he wrote then to Rogallo "Ryan research aircraft" as JD put bat wings aside.
For solid cause, Hobson is the inspiration for good communications; he anchored Low & Slow and seems to finish the second era of its editor via the solution package in the World Hang Gliding Associations dynamically ever-to-sharpen combination group Flex-Wing Hang Glider Gold Air Award. Thank you, again, Jim, for your communication skills! It is hoped that the FAI and HGFA will raise their bar for historical scrutiny as they review their first taking of the
GH Test; perhaps FAI and USHPA and HGFA will take the
GH Test over again and improve their grade from F to maybe a B or hopefully an A+; their will always be time for people to take the
GH Test for HG sake.
GH Test wrote:
What is the
GH Test ? 
Summarily: Looking at the host of untenable claims that GH has buried in an avalanche of data and deciding for oneself the soundness of the claims is the taking of the
GH Test. Each person will have their score or grade privately and some will have their grade made known publicly. The
GH Test is sitting in the heart of hang gliding community. Everyone will have some relation with the
GH Test whether they know such or not. Some people will take a short time to finish the test; others will take years to complete the test; some will try to ignore the test and simply let others take the test directly. Etc. It is hoped that by taking the test, the hang gliding community might awaken from a slumber over the history of hang gliders. No matter what: each person will have the universe of their own making ... in great part. The germination of the GH Test term comes at the end of a long effort while meditating over the quality of communications that James Hobson lived in his professional and hobby aviation life. See the germination paragraphs here:
http://www.energykitesystems.net/WHGA/FlexWingHangGliderGoldAirAward.html#GHTest 
