I believe that flight was quite possible with primitive materials, but without decent pilot instruction, most of the earliest pioneers did not survive their first serious mistake, whatever that may have been, in each case. Back in Biblical times, silk was probably stronger and lighter than our modern sails. Bamboo was often used in our earliest HG airframes, being strong and light. Local HG pilots there have recently constructed a copy of that glider from the art work, and it was a respectable flying machine, once the Center of Gravity (balance point) was sorted out. They had no photographs, but local artists had made excellent pictures of his craft in flight. I do not remember his name, but his bird-like design was made of bamboo and silk, very finely crafted. The video has not made it to YouTube, so far. When I was living on Okinawa, I saw a documentary video of somebody there who was (reportedly) years ahead of them. The USAF named Chanute AFB, IL in recognition of Octave's early flights and research. They gave Otto and Octave a lot of credit for that help, naturally. Octave and Otto gave the Wright Brothers a great deal of information, which helped the bicycle brothers to get flying. Linen was available, 'way back in Biblical times. Their designs were made with wood and linen fabric, and they logged lots of gliding flights. Wood and animal skin seems heavy, but look into the works of Otto Lillienthal, and Octave Chanute. Would it be possible to make a working hang glider out of wood, animal skin, and sinew?Just, Rework the design, go back to the drawing board and work out the kinks, visit your local hang gliding club and school and get some instruction and a close up look at real gliders.Google is crawling with information on aerodynamics and aero structures - I can provide some very respected books that can give you a foundational understanding - research and work this out and then share your project as something that can be built and safely flown.I know nothing about hang gliding so I wanted to ask you folks a question. You may not have intentions of flying at altitude but someone may follow your design and launch off a mountain or building and die.a simple disclaimer cannot absolve that and trust me you don't want that on your conscience. Your system of weight shift is insufficient even for just short hops, the Ragallo wing has the ability to climb rapidly and sharply in a gust which is when flight loads become critical and where failures in design and construction will materialize and could very likely cause serious injury or death. Without engineering or aerodynamic understanding, you've based your creation off the simplest aspects of the Ragallo kites but not considered the painful lessons learned through fatalities over time. I applaud your effort but this is so flawed as a man-carrying flying machine, everything from your drilling method, fasteners, materials, lack of structural integrity and bracing, right down to the design, is flawed and unsafe. (put the plastic under the keel so you do not have to tape it as much) Then either sew on if you are using fabric, or tape on if you are using plastic. SAIL: Lay the frame on top of the sail, then cut it out 1ft away from the frame to give the glider billows. NOSE: I used a t shaped plate I found at the hardware store, and put one on the top and one on the bottom of the tubes so it was strong. I put my crossbar at 14ft down from the nose on each leading edge and bolted it. My leading edge lengths were 16ft, and my crossbar was 18ft. (what I should've done to sleeve the pieces is just put a tube on top of the other and bolt it, but I didn't do that) The way I sleeved them worked alright, could've been better.ĭIMENSIONS: The keel on mine was 22ft with sail going to 20ft so I had room to connect wiring. So what I did to connect the tubes is get a 1ft segment of 1 inch steel, put the aluminum in the steel tube and bolt it. SLEEVING: I had a problem in which I had 12ft lengths of aluminum and I needed a 22ft keel, and I have no special tools, just hand tools.
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