[JoeF]

When more is known about this craft and pilot, then perhaps a topic thread would be suitable. Anyone?
http://i670.photobucket.com/albums/vv70 ... 1e50f4.jpg


The prone position with parasol wing with A-frame, and wide extended basebar wheeled seem interesting.

Year? Pilot? Designer? Trials?
One site hints that the scene might be pre-1914, but I do not have confirmation.
The caption there is:

Dorner-Begas Gleiter of 1908.
A parasol design started by Diplom Ingenieur Hermann Dorner in the spring of 1907 as a glider with a possibility of attaching an engine at a later time. He was financially assisted by Gottfried Begas, the son of the German sculptor Reinhold Begas. The machine was flown by towing it behind a horse and flights made were about 80 meters in distance at a maximum height of 10 meters. Dorner himself flew the machine and as can be seen in the photo, lay horizontally in the same way the Wright brothers would lie on the lower wing of their biplane gliders or early motorized biplanes.

The first decade of 1900s gave into public domain the A-frame cable-stayed with hung pilot as we use so often today. Fifty or so years later John Worth used the A-frame in the stiffened Rogallo Wing four-boom hang glider in many ways. In that era of renaissance seeding we see the following use also:
.
Then later in 1962 we find James Hobson following the tradition to seed the HG renaissance; see thread topic on Jim Hobson.

Some references on the way to understanding Dorner and his gleiter.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_Dorner

Maybe some clues from a Dorner III

[[Not to lose a neat found page on Hans Grade that features pilot hung and A-frame and more: "Stunt Plane by Hans Grade (archive Eberhard wreath)"
http://www.fliegerweb.com/geschichte/fl ... exikon-650 ]]
Included at that page, see again the double A-frame, power on or off, rightside or upside down ...got you covered for control and landing:

German wiki:

Bundesarchiv_Bild_146-2008-0141,_Hans_Grade.jpg (45.49 KiB) Viewed 10328 times

Hans Grade auf seinem Eindecker Nr. 1 (1909). Pilot is hung from wing; he places his feet on basebar of A-frame; this is a bit different from the 1908 Breslau gliding club's A-frame pilot arrangement that forms some of the early tech for that which is common today for hang gliding.

[JoeF]

An A-frame in glider trainer in July 1931 issue of Popular Mechanics:

[JoeF]

November issue of Popular Mechanics in 1961
A-frame for the hang glider that would glide when power was off:

[JoeF]

1911
The control system in parasol hang gliders that we mostly use today was extant in hang gliding in at least the first decade of 1900s.
In the 1800s the mechanics were understood and such set into public domain. Variations even occurred in 1800s. The totally most
simply format that we know well today was used directly in at least 1908.

THEN enter power and the A-frame of the hang glider morphed to be the most ubiquitous undercarriage in aviation.
Go through powered aircraft from the first decade of 1900s and march forward through hundreds of distinct aircraft and find the morphed use.

[JoeF]

Alberto Santos-Dumont
Featured in aviation the image of the truss, the triangle frame, the A-frame in his prize-winning powered flight around the Eiffel Tower in France in an out-and-back circuit. The lower airframe triangle was imprinted in the minds of viewers.

And another craft of his Nol 6


His epic first monoplane feature the A-frame and he hung from the airframe, his No. 19 :
The Santos Dumont No. 19. This was the first of his diminutive monoplanes, the Demoiselle



The impact of the structural tech of Wenham, Pilcher, Alberto Santos-Dumont as sketched above, the Breslau area hang gliding club with the full flexible-wing battened and with the A-frame mechanically simple as we have today in a foot-launch hang glider: cable-stayed A-frame for control by hung pilot, and others ... put into public domain the full mechanics of the simple hang glider....All became totally obvious to those skilled in the arts ... and was built, shown, shared; adding such obvious arts cannot win a badge of global mechanical invention for such.
Notice that ASD did not put his various inventions into patent applications; he gave immediately to the world. For No. 19 he let out plans to the whole world. Deeply unfold the involved mechanics known in ASD in No. 19 and get a hint of what was in the PUBLIC DOMAIN ...(which thus could not be fairly invented following).

http://www.rc-guijarro.com/plansfiles/Doc_Demoiselle.pdf
Perhaps first true ultralight. But notice: 1. Power off: glider. 2. His body is sitting on a slung seat. 3. Timing of A-frame can be studied for timing of the Breslau 1908 foot-launch hang glider that was essentially an not-so-pretty ananchronistically-referenced standard Rogallo foot-launch hang glider! In one year we see in two places both the "anachronistically-referenced" standard Rogallo foot-launch standard hang glider and an ultralight advance to personal powered aviation by ASD. ASD had the truss and triangle in a big way in his powered dirigible and then once he turned his focus to true heavier-than-air craft....what is the first obvious thing he uses: A-frame, slung pilot beneath parasol wing; and he gave it to the world by plans.







Who would dare rob our Public Domain gifts?
May many unfold the fullness of our Public-Domain arts prior to July 29, 1963.

[JoeF]

FlyingJuly1961wTCFbyRyan.JPG (48.18 KiB) Viewed 9110 times

Flying, magazine, July 1961, article page 22 and following.
Three rod and spreader beam, then below A-frames to hold hung masses. Power-off (as always) gives glider.

[JoeF]

Rotachute-Color.jpg (15.65 KiB) Viewed 9110 times

640px-Hafner_Rotachute.jpg (52.99 KiB) Viewed 9110 times

Some versions had the full A-frame stick as shown that was frame-integrated with wing. Craft was able to kite and hang-glide when disconnected from the kiting tether. Rotachute.

[JoeF]

ChristianRasmussenPARASOLwTCF.jpg (85.16 KiB) Viewed 9110 times

Christian Rasmussen PARASOL showing below-wing A-frames in use.

[JoeF]

Picture_02_zpse2417c4d.jpg (237.39 KiB) Viewed 9110 times

Unknown. Challenge rig. Ornithopter effort apparently.
Even the flappers used the A-frame.

[JoeF]

US1145972wTCFfiled1910.jpg (40.05 KiB) Viewed 9109 times

Filed in 1910
US1145972