[Bob Kuczewski]

The Hang Gliding Historical Committee is tasked with preserving and celebrating the rich history of hang gliding. Anyone interested in participating in this effort is welcome to post to this forum. Please feel free to introduce yourself in this topic.

This forum was created on May 24th, 2011 - one day after the 40th anniversary celebration of the first Otto Lilienthal Hang Gliding Celebration (May 23rd, 1971). Here's a photo from that event:

P5230059cs.JPG (213.65 KiB) Viewed 15457 times

Please feel free to sign up and discuss your own interest in the history of this great sport.
 

[JoeF]

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Edit later on June 22, 2011
Art Bean was at the original Otto Meet in a big way; he won best craftsmanship for biplane hang glider. In the making of the hang glider, he with hand sawing made eight 16 ft spars for his "Bean's Bird" HG; other similar care went into the complete build. The fullness of his trophy occurred with the cooperations between JoeF and Joe Greblo of Windsports in a 21st century reunion where Art Bean showed at Dockweiler. Art's flight friend Terri has expressed that "I'll tell you a secret. He was standing right next to you Joe! at the 163rd celebration and flying above." There is a movement to house Art's various hang gliders and his full colorful history for public view. Art Bean http://tinyurl.com/ArtBeanREMEMBERINGhim
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[Bob Kuczewski]

There have been some posts concerned with what we are including in the "Hang Gliding Historical Committee" subforum.

With those concerns in mind, I'd like to suggest that we form a more "official" Hang Gliding Historical Committee to take ownership of this subforum in a manner similar to the way that clubs have ownership of their club forums.

That might entail subdividing this forum into "Offical" information and "Unofficial" information. The Hang Gliding Historical Committee would be in charge of deciding what belongs in the "Official" section, and everything else would end up in the "Unofficial" section. That's a way to combine freedom of speech with the desire to have a more orderly presentation of hang gliding history.

This is just a proposal and is moot if there's no one willing to be members of the Hang Gliding Historical Committee. But if anyone is interested, please feel free to post your thoughts and proposals here. If there is interest, I'm sure we can work something out that satisfies almost everyone.

Thanks.