May, 2004

Who invented the flex wing hang glider?
By Mark Woodhams

The birth of hang gliding as a sport is popularly seen as a Californian phenomenon. Few have questioned the notion that Richard Miller, Bill Moyes and Bill Bennett brought the Rogallo hang glider to the attention of a receptive American public in the late sixties. But where did they get their ideas from? Miller's attitude to hang gliding was not as a sport but as an exercise in freedom. In the days of flower power his visions of personal motorless flight and 'transcendental aerodynamics' attracted popular interest. His bamboo and polyethene contraptions were a perfect expression of alternative aviation. Miller's source was directly from the NASA research documentation. Moyes and Bennett however, were much more in the mold of the early barnstormers. Both Australians, they came to Europe and the States to sell 'kites' as a business. But who taught them to fly and where did they get their designs from? All paths lead back to the little-known John Dickensons and this is his story.

Flexible wings
The starting point for the whole saga is the work done by Francis and Gertrude Rogallo in the late forties. Their aim was to construct a flying machine with no rigid element or element designed to produce rigidity: a completely new concept, never seen before, with no model in nature"- Their early work is evidenced by their 1948 Patent, and the photograph of a flexible test vehicle, typical of the period seen in the Langley wind tunnel

The Rogallo's invention found moderate success when it was privately marketed as a toy, but it was the space race which began to blossom in the mid-fifties that caught the imagination of NASA. Francis Rogallo started in 1936 as an engineer at the then NACA controlled Langley Research Center, later to take charge of wind-tunnel experiments.

There is a clear line of development from the original flexible wing ideas directly into paragliding. The Pioneer Parachute Co and Irvin Industries manufactures versions of the type as the Delta 11 Parawing. Domina Jalbert also took up the flexible wing principle and is now credited by some as the father of paragliding - but all of these pioneers owe a huge debt to the original research work of the Rogallos

As the pace of competitive States/USSR rocket development quickened, Francis Rogallo adapted and extended the totally flexible principle into semi-rigid variants. This mainly involved stabilizing the leading edges with compressed air beam or rigid structures like aluminum tube There was a great state of creative ideas in this period which culminated in the set of patents all dated around the mid to late sixties.

It was the custom in U.S. Government establishments that once the basic studies of a development were completed, private companies were invited to take the ball and run with a series of lucrative contracts. The Ryan company and North American Aviation were awarded most of these, and very soon flex-wings of man shapes, sizes and power plant were developed. Apart from flexible re-entry gliders, helicopter towed flex-wings, radio controlled self-steering cargo delivery gliders, rocket powered escape Rogallo modules, Fleeps and Parasevs abounded. Millions were spent on research. During this time most of the developments were made available for public consumption, and photographs and articles were not uncommon in the popular press. Among many others, in 1962 Ryan published a photo of a Gemini capsule suspended beneath a primitive Rogallo wing with pneumatic leading edges .

But then suddenly the bubble burst and development of flexible wing craft stowed dramatically. No further contracts were awarded to Ryan or North American. Capsule re-entry was to be effected by parachute only, into the oceans. The Shuttle principle developed so fast it made all the flexible wing deployment, re-entry vehicles redundant. Finally the military and space agencies lost interest completely, and the programmed end which millions of dollars had been lavished, ceased to exist. And that is where it would have stopped had not several enthusiasts, spread throughout the world, seen the possibilities of the Rogallo wing as cheap personal aviation.

In 1963 John Dickensons was working in electronics, not aviation, and had just moved to Grafton, New South Wales, Australia with his wife Amy. As a child John was obsessed with things that fly, But as he grew up circumstances forced him to train for a more down-to-earth profession. However, the urge to fly cannot lightly be put aside, and it was on Woolgoolga beach that John was spotted flying a modified Benson gyro-plane by officials of the Grafton Water Ski Club. The Annual Jacaranda Festival was approaching and John, by now a club member, was drafted in it build a water ski kite as part of the show. If he could build and fly a gyro-plane, a ski kite should give him no trouble. The Club expected John to make a conventional flat-kite, the sort that doesn't really fly but goes upwards in drag reaction just due to the tow boat speed. This idea was abandoned when John discovered that every previous kite flyer at the Jacaranda Festival had been injured, and that was what everybody turned up for! It was at this time that the Gemini photo was released, and this seemed to be much more suited to the aquatic environment. John saw it in a magazine and was inspired.

It is precisely at this point that history was made. Armed with only the photograph. No dimensions. No back up information. John started to make models based on the flex-wing principle and they flew - really well. By May 1963 he had a half-size model in which he could be towed. The full size version was developed and the maiden flight was in September 1963. The photo shows it's second flight with Rod Fuller as pilot The Daily Examiner of October 1963 records the event for posterity. Note the weight shift single hang point, the 'A' frame. All the major innovations that lead directly to hang gliding as we know it today were developed in the space of about 6 months On the 11 th October 1963 John filed for a patent and Provisional Protection was awarded for the application numbered 36189/63.

The first gliders had wood leading edges, aluminum cross-booms, iron 'A' frames and the sails were made from blue plastic sheeting- Total cost $24! By 1964.

Flight and construction problems had been sorted. John's Ski Wing, for that is what it was called, was now made entirely out of aluminum, except for the mild steel 'A' frame, part-battened sails out of nylon and the rigging was wire cable. He had designed the nose plate so that the leading edges swung into the keel, and the cross-boom pivoted, fore and aft, for quick knock down and car-top transport. And most importantly, although launch was still being towed behind a boat, the landings were often made off the tow line in true free-flight. lt is interesting to note that work on personal Rogallos in the states was still a year or so off, and when it did start it would go the bamboo, plastic and parallel bars route.

Frances Rogallo and Dickensons
In 1964 a Brisbane newspaper had published a picture of John Dickenson's creation and a man called Robin Bishop had seen it and wrote to his friend Francis Rogallo in Virginia, USA, explaining that an Australian had independently developed the Rogallo principle into a perfectly viable man-carrying airplane for so little money it was laughable. Understandably interested, Rogallo wrote to John in September 1964 requesting information. On the 24th November the entire plans and general specification of the Ski Wing were sent back to him at the Langley Research Center in Virginia. In just about every detail the craft described in the drawings is identical to what became known throughout the world as the 'Standard Rogallo' and latterly 'Bog Rog'. We had to wait for another ten years before this type of hang glider started to become obsolete.

In Francis Rogallo's reply to John dated 29th January 1965, he says, and I quote directly: "To get back to your glider design, I hope to make some copies of your drawings and perhaps have some individual or groups build a glider like yours locally ... Your design looks better than other ski kites that I have seen and I wish you great success with it." This is praise indeed from the master-

The first manufactures
By 1964 the publicity surrounding the Ski Wing was beginning to create a demand and John started making and selling the glider to water ski enthusiasts. Rod Fuller now drove the boats, John did the demo flights and people like Ruy Leighton bought the early examples. However for one reason or another the business of marketing the hang glider as a tow launched craft was making slow progress.

They were flying a lot of exhibitions and everyone was very enthusiastic, but converting interest into sales was an uphill struggle. John thinks that it was the daredevil publicity that made people wary. After all the work, they had a complete system to sell and John wasn't making any money out of it. He was beginning to wonder if it was all worth while.

In 1966 a move to Sydney and a meeting with Mike Burns seemed to open up new commercial possibilities. Mike was a graduate aeronautical engineer who had independently developed a Rogallo type tow glider called the Ski Plane. His company Aerostructures now started to build the Dickensons Ski Wing whilst John demo'd it and taught people to fly-

About this time John set an Australian 2 hour endurance record and people like Bill Moyes, Bill Bennett and Gelignite Jack Murray began to sit up and take notice.

In March 1967 Moyes and Bennett signed up for trial flights. John duly taught them both to fly and Bill Moyes bought a kite from Aerostructured. Shortly afterwards the company went broke owing John all the commission from the wings that had been sold.

Bill Moyes and John became good friends. John willingly donated the design and constructional information of the Ski Wing to Bill, and in the years between 1967 and 1969 a great deal of collaborative work was carried out in the search for bigger performance. lt seems that Bill was a fearless flyer and his chase for records aild hang gliding publicity created an enormous press following. Bill Bennett was similarly motivated and altitude records sea-sawed between the two barnstormers. In 1969-70 Bennett moved to the States with some gliders based en John Dickensons designs and set up a manufacturing business in California. Moyes was already set up in Australia and beginning to make it pay. lt is ironic that at a time when hang gliding started to fire the public's imagination worldwide, John Dickensons should begin to retreat from involvement with it's future. Pressures at work, the financial implications of the move to Sydney and trying to salvage a Diploma in Management at the job all contributed to his withdrawal. By late 1969 John had stopped flying and building, and by 1973 the collaboration with Bill Moyes was over, though they are still good friends.

His place in history
It is undoubtedly true that many people from many countries made very real contributions to the development of the hang glider; The phenomenon of parallel development has clearly operated to a great extent. Richard Miller in the States was blissfully unaware of the work of John Dickensons in Grafton as was Mike Burns in Sydney. lt appears that Tom Purcell Jr flew a Rogallo tow vehicle in 1961,and Jim Natland and Bar Palmer were also pioneers in the mid-sixties.

Despite all the efforts of these visionary engineers, the name of John Dickensons must stand alone as the man who created the first completely developed flexible wing hang glider, with all the features we now take for granted. He did it in 1963, way ahead of anything that was going on in the States. He did it in a small town in Australia away from the so-called centers of learning. He did it in a small town in a starting point, and he even had a provisional patent for it.

The whole process was complete in a ridiculously short time at hardly any cost. Ironically he never made any money out of his invention.

Despite all this, his contribution is not generally recognized. Not even in Australia. Surely John Dickensons rightful place in history is alongside Dr. Francis Rogallo.