U.S. Hang Gliding Pilots

Gustave Albin Whitehead (born Gustav Albin Weisskopf)
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May we collect his radiance in this topic thread! Some mention in forum has already occurred; we aim to bring links into this topic thread.
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But let's begin with a contemporary share by ARP (Tony Prentice) ... forum member . Tony just sent me some neat links to some current happenings:
HERE TV report from Monday 13.08.18: VIDEO is with Germany speech. Neat replica and model effort. Nice to see the posters in the background. And the smiles. Double-decker by Weisskopf (aka Whitehead).

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wiki
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustave_Whitehead
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Joe, was this pilot supposed to have flown a powered aircraft before the Wright Brothers some place in south western Connecticut?

Hey Joe, I checked my facts and this is the same person who claimed to have flown a powered aircraft before the Wright Brothers. This is a fascinating topic.

Wingspan, yes a fascinating topic. Although Joe did not respond to your posts he did put this up on Rogallo's page.:- "Perhaps Gustave Whitehead will one day be seen as one of the fathers of modern hang gliding for virtue of his teaching in a patent in the first decade of the 1900s of battened flex-wing with hung pilot using lower control frame for shifting weight of pilot relative to the attitude of the wing."

The Wrights only released information when it suited them and their subsequent claims. They claimed not to have looked at the engines Whitehead was producing for aircraft when they went looking for a suitable motor. Just how many aircraft engine manufacturers could there have been in those days? They denied it because they did not want to give Whitehead any credibility for his claims of flight prior to theirs!

How did he get airborne? Run from a hill? Pulled in the air like a kite?

---<)kaimartin(>---

Looking at the topography in the photo it shows flat land. There could be a hill behind the photographer but I guess he was more likely towed into the air. There is also the possibility that the photo was 'faked' or posed as in another photo of a Chanute type glider that he built. Whitehead was a prolific builder of different aircraft designs as well as aero engines. Unfortunately his recording of them and his flights were not well documented.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustave_Whitehead