[JoeF]

Invited is a study and discussion of anything hang gliding that had been covered in Life Magazine during its publishing.
Anyone? Issue? Topic? Text? Commentary?


September 7, 1942 "Life" Magazine "War Glider" Article

__________:arrow: How many of the WWII transport or combat glider pilots had hang gliding experience, if any? Research project.

Nov. 1961 issue. We see the four-boomer hang glider wing folding up for storage. When power is off for whatever reason, hang gliding disciplines come into play.
__________:Does anyone have the text of the article that featured mostly the Ryan powered-vehicle using the four-boom hang glider wing?

LIFE May 24, 1954. One day after Otto Lilienthal birthday. Anyone with full text on the article on the glider? Notice the single-point hang of pilot payload. Notice the A-frame for control of the wing attitude. The hang glider or kite-glider pilot is shown holding the two down tubes of the A-frame; he could also grasp the base of the triangle. Notice that both Bensen and Purcell had operations at the Raleigh-Durham airport in North Carolina; Purcell was also playing with Skyhook captive helicopter; Purcell was familiar with the A-frame for control of kite-gliders, as Bensen was crafting and flying with the old public-domain hang glider mechanics, also illustrated in the first decade of 1900s. On Oct 27, 1961, Purcell would use a first control system that he morphed away from for further versions; precise description of Purcell's very first Flightsail craft are waiting to be fully known by me, but Purcell wrote of "two rods" involved---could that be two down tubes of the many-decade old public-domain A-frame arrangement for hang gliders? Much later John Worth would return for use with the Fleep a use of the A-frame in relating with payload below the Rogallo-inspired four-boom wing. Later others would return to the A-frame for some hang gliders.
LIFE issue here shows photograph of the Bensen kite-glider using such mechanics.

May 24, 1953, LIFE magazine. Note the hang glider kite-pilot is holding the A-frame two side down tubes to control attitude of wing relative to pilot's center of gravity.

AframeHoldTwoDownTubesInHangGliderBensen.JPG (12.91 KiB) Viewed 3278 times

Free-flight hang gliding back to ground

GlideBackUntethered.JPG (19.14 KiB) Viewed 3278 times

A-frame control

control.JPG (15.51 KiB) Viewed 3278 times

[JoeF]

LIFE, May 4, 1962.
Historical note: I was in a deep kite hobby a year after this article. William Yolen, author of kite books and subject of this LIFE article, wrote back to me and declared me as "Kite King" in a too-generous response to the text of my letter to him. Such put me one away from associating with the early Francis Rogallo, as you see from this clip in LIFE. Yolen was started with Rogallo contact; Yolen extends title to me in letter; I later publish on Rogallo and others in my hang gliding publications. A second association I had with Rogallo: Rogallo personally gave Mr. Peter Hodgson, then owner of Silly Putty three Rogallo Flexkite packs, one of which got in my hands for flying as the inheriting son of Peter was a family friend of mine and extended such to me in Venice, CA, seeing how deep into kites I was in Venice; I had put on a full-on kite party for Peter, Jr.'s son Nicholas. Here is the clip from the 1962 May 4, LIFE:

RogalloYolenFaustHGM.JPG (49.64 KiB) Viewed 3278 times

William Yolen's "about 12 years ago" would put the incident of introduction for him at about 1950 or so, as the article was published in 1962. So the life of my hang gliding has a touch of the 1950 Rogallo life! Fun. Later, Rogallo would be a subscriber to Low & Slow and also Hang Glider Weekly magazine that I published. He was a member of Self-Soar Association. And now in a second-era stream after Rogallo's passing, I am exploring his contributions to hang gliding realms---and how the Rogallo wing lives interior of most all wings giving a new kind of confidence about shape setting; that is, the ghostly limp wing dances in the recesses of a wing, rigid or not; such was not seen so clearly until Rogallo taught it, even though full appreciation is still unfolding.