[wingspan33]

I just saw an online article on the passing of Neil Armstrong.
What a great man. The first human being to ever set foot on another
planetary body.

Although just a young teenager I remember watching the video feed live from the moon on that fateful day (or was it night time on earth?). Through a number of associated events Francis and Gertrude Rogallo may never have invented the basic delta shaped flex wing if it weren't for the early US space program (well before Neil came along). And although a distant connection, Neil Armstrong was part of that program.

I wonder how many of us would have first dreamed about flying, then taken up hang gliding, if it weren't for the incredible deeds of astronauts like Neil Armstrong. After all, hang gliding is a version of "space age" flying - and we are doing it!

Thanks for the inspiration Neil. I'll never forget your "Giant Leap".

S C Wise

[SamKellner]

Hi Wingspan,

Yep that's sad news. Real pioneer. That "small step" did change a lot of us, "mankind".

Hand salute. Thank You, Neil.

[JoeF]

Neil Alden Armstrong (August 5, 1930 – August 25, 2012)

Neil, thanks for moving your hung mass beneath the wing spurred by Rogallo's conferences.
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ ... o-wing.htm


Click to see Neil in the year he piloted the stiffened Rogallo wing hung-mass weight-shift controlled wing:
http://www.thehindu.com/multimedia/dyna ... 89494g.jpg Image: Sept. 1962.

[JoeF]

Neil Armstrong
... one of the eight pilots of the Paresev hang glider:
Picture is of him about two to three years before he flew the Rogallo triked hang glider:
http://vintagespace.files.wordpress.com ... w-test.jpg

More: http://www.energykitesystems.net/hgh/pa ... oginc.html
And: http://amyshirateitel.com/2011/05/29/th ... ots-built/

Circa 1962.

[wingspan33]

Thanks Joe for that historical information on Neil Armstrong. Clearly he was a "hang glider" pilot before our wings gained massive public exposure (generally speaking) in the early 1970s.

And, of course he was a very skilled pilot - including test pilot. For that alone, he deserves our respect and a moment or two of reflection on his life and memory.

[JoeF]

IN CASE YOU DIDN'T ALREADY KNOW THIS LITTLE TIDBIT OF WONDERFUL TRIVIA..............
ON JULY 20, 1969, AS COMMANDER OF THE APOLLO 11 LUNAR MODULE, NEIL ARMSTRONG WAS THE FIRST PERSON TO SET FOOT ON THE MOON.
HIS FIRST WORDS AFTER STEPPING ON THE MOON,
"THAT'S ONE SMALL STEP FOR MAN, ONE GIANT LEAP FOR MANKIND," WERE TELEVISED TO EARTH AND HEARD BY MILLIONS.
BUT, JUST BEFORE HE RE-ENTERED THE LANDER, HE MADE THE ENIGMATIC REMARK "GOOD LUCK, MR. GORSKY."
MANY PEOPLE AT NASA THOUGHT IT WAS A CASUAL REMARK CONCERNING SOME RIVAL SOVIET COSMONAUT.
HOWEVER, UPON CHECKING, THERE WAS NO GORSKY IN EITHER THE RUSSIAN OR AMERICAN SPACE PROGRAMS.

OVER THE YEARS, MANY PEOPLE QUESTIONED ARMSTRONG AS TO WHAT THE 'GOOD LUCK, MR. GORSKY' STATEMENT MEANT, BUT ARMSTRONG ALWAYS JUST SMILED.

ON JULY 5, 1995, IN TAMPA BAY, FLORIDA, WHILE ANSWERING QUESTIONS FOLLOWING A SPEECH, A REPORTER BROUGHT UP THE 26-YEAR-OLD QUESTION ABOUT MR.GORSKY AND
THIS TIME HE FINALLY RESPONDED BECAUSE HIS MR. GORSKY HAD JUST DIED, SO NEIL ARMSTRONG FELT HE COULD NOW ANSWER THE QUESTION.
HERE IS THE ANSWER TO
"WHO WAS MR. GORSKY?":
IN 1938, WHEN HE WAS A KID IN A SMALL MID-WESTERN TOWN, HE WAS PLAYING BASEBALL WITH A FRIEND IN THE BACKYARD.
HIS FRIEND HIT THE BALL, WHICH LANDED IN HIS NEIGHBOR'S YARD BY THEIR BEDROOM WINDOW.
HIS NEIGHBORS WERE MR. AND MRS. GORSKY.
AS HE LEANED DOWN TO PICK UP THE BALL, YOUNG ARMSTRONG HEARD MRS. GORSKY SHOUTING AT
MR. GORSKY,
"SEX! YOU WANT SEX?! YOU'LL GET SEX WHEN THE KID NEXT DOOR WALKS ON THE MOON!"
It broke the place up.
NEIL ARMSTRONG'S FAMILY CONFIRMED THAT
THIS IS A TRUE STORY.

[SamKellner]

Neil Armstrong

[Frank Colver]

Several of us R/C glider flyers, as members of the Harbor Slope Soaring Society, were checking out a new ocean view hill with potential for ridge soaring that morning. We all made sure we packed up the model gliders and headed to our homes in plenty of time to watch that first moon landing.

For me it was special in another way. All the time I was growing up my dad would tell me that I would live to see a human walk on the moon, but he surely couldn't live that long (I was the youngest of four (well spaced) so dad was quite a bit older than I.

That afternoon we watched the first man walk on the moon, dad and I together, in my livingroom.

I still have his copy of the LA Times with the front page announcement of the landing. It was in his belongings after he died.

Frank Colver