Octave Chanute's railroad mind may be seen in the biplane that he spent much time on.
His engineering mind that had rails running brought firm biplane hang gliders; such evolved into airplanes.
A delving into the railroad Octave Chanute mind may be seen as part of hang gliding history.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octave_ChanuteSince the biplane hang glider was a huge part of hang gliding history ... even lasting to our current era,
profound sensing Octave Chanute could grace some hang glider participants' hobby and sport.
Clip from today's wiki:
Civil Engineer (Railroads)
Hannibal Bridge from 1908 postcard
Octave Chanute began his training as a budding civil engineer in 1848.
He was widely considered brilliant and innovative in the engineering profession. During his career he designed and constructed the United States' two biggest stock yards, Chicago Stock Yards (1865) and Kansas City Stockyards (1871). He designed and built the Hannibal Bridge which was the first bridge to cross the Missouri River in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1869 and established Kansas City as the dominant city in the region. He designed many other bridges during his railroad career, including the Illinois River rail bridge at Chillicothe, Illinois,[3] the Genesee River Gorge rail bridge near Portageville, New York (now in Letchworth State Park), the bridge across the Missouri River at Sibley, Missouri, across the Mississippi River at Fort Madison, Iowa, and the Kinzua.
When I see a Chanute biplane hang glider, I see the "two-ness" of the wings and recall the "two-ness" of the rails that were a large part of Octave Chanute's life. And I see the bridge-engineer in him extending that truss mind into biplane wing hang glider. The inclines of railroads are very important for parking and launching long heavy trains; the inclines of the air for gliding are important to us; the inclines of HG launching are important. Hang gliding has very much in common with trains. I live next to two streets called Block and the other Beatie (Be a tie); these are next a parking of trains place; the heavy trains park very carefully on a very long slow hump so that launching from rest can be done by sliding down the long slow incline where not much energy is required as gravity is employed just like Octave used inclines to use gravity to have his men launch his biplane and triplane hang gliders. I frequently kite and hang glider near the rails and recall Octave Chanute's involvement with rails for railroad.
Notice in the wiki some of his patents. Rolling stock. Flying machine. etc. The topics are intertwined. TRich and profound hang gliding appreciation is teased by the topic's video. From trains to airplanes .... hang gliding designer pioneer engineer Octave Chanute stands tall for hang gliding's history. Removing the rails and transportation and need for inclines of Octave Chanute from hang gliding history would form a large sad hole.
Take some energy to place up on the topic table just how rich the topic teaser is. The topic starter gave a near-genius tease that may form a very appropriate topic. Those readers not yet moving into the heart of the first post to find hang gliding are yet missing out on a hang gliding history paramount topic. The topic is one indicator how strong US Hawks is as regards appreciation of hang gliding history matters.
Here is a clip from one of O. Chanute's aviation patents where railroad rails are part of the scene in several ways:
- RailsAndPlanesCLIPpatent.JPG (29.1 KiB) Viewed 10843 times
A week or so ago with low wind, the wing being flown by me was felt heavier than usual in the carryback. After 20 carrybacks days later I found that I had been bruising my left shoulder rotator cuff in that flight session; I am designing and building a shoulder cushion that I will wear that will protect the shoulder some from the carryback downtubes. Having a Chanute railroad in the carryback might be a solution
Hats off to O. Chanute for his mental training in bridges for trains and attention on rail designs all of which fed his hang glider design mind.
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In
one may detect the seeds of the Chanute biplane hang glider and following aircraft ... and aviation.