History of Hang Gliding & Paragliding

Back to the Future

[ Link to picture page showing a class 2 hang glider skimming at Westbury White Horse, England ] [ Link to ghostbuster picture page ] Rigid (class 2) hang gliders -- with spoilers and/or ailerons for turn control -- have made a recent comeback. Unlike the Icarus 5 they are foldable much like a modern flexwing. And unlike the foldable Fledge they are not structurally dependant on a drag-creating mass of rigging cables.

As for myself, in the summer of 2000, as a newly trained paraglider pilot, I was back at Kimmeridge on a day much as that described at the start of this history. The scene was identical except for the shape of the wings and the fact that there were many more of them. Their better-trained pilots were enjoying the air in more airworthy gliders than Pete Robinson and I had done a quarter century before.

On the track that runs along the top of the ridge, below me, a motorcycle braked to a halt and parked, its rider top-heavy with a huge rucksack. Shortly the motorcyclist laid out a high performance paraglider, checked his emergency reserve as he always does before take-off, and launched. I was once again sharing the Kimmeridge lift with Pete Robinson.




[ dualTO.jpg (13 KB) ] The painting at right is of a dual launch in a hang glider. Most dual flying nowadays is aboard paragliders.
In late November 2000, jet pilot and Wessex club member Richard Westgate, flying a paraglider in Brazil with Jim Coutts, was airborne for more than six hours. They landed twenty minutes before sundown in order to secure landing witnesses. Richard said that he did not envy those still at altitude when the sun set: Darkness replaces daylight within minutes at those latitudes. Richard and Jim gained the paragliding dual distance world record of 220 km (136 miles).


[ Link to picture page ] [ Link to picture page ]
Flare! Most aircraft flare for landing -- pitch into a nose-high angle, reducing speed and losing lift. But nothing flares like a modern hang glider.

"A human being flying with a pair of wings on his back has flown over 400 miles."
-- Davis Straub
In July 2001, launching from Zapata, Texas, German pilot Manfred Ruhmer flew his flexwing hang glider ten-and-a-half hours to a distance world record of 432 miles.

On the same day, starting at the same aerotow field, US pilot Davis Straub flew his class 2 rigid hang glider 407 miles.

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