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Flex-wings with tails

This related topics menu links to material in the main hang gliding pages. The links here are in chronological order.

A major advantage of the flex-wing (principally the Rogallo type) is its simplicity in having no separate tail surfaces. Nonetheless, innovators over the years have attempted to combine the flex-wing’s simplicity with additional tail surfaces to achieve greater performance.

• Project Quicksilver in Hang gliding before 1973 part 2. Although not strictly a flex-wing in that any change in geometry of the wing in flight had no direct bearing on its flying characteristics, the Quicksilver was built using contemporary flex-wing hang glider technology.
• Tweetie in Hang gliding 1974 part 1
• CGS Falcon in Elberta Dune, Michigan, July 1974
• Luff in the time of cholera for the simplest of all tails; the sailfeather
• Scientific American hang glider, the Markowski Eagle III of 1974. The way the sail of the Eagle III changed shape and the effect of that change were unique.
• Miles Wings Gulp in Hang gliding 1975 part 2
• Canards in Skyhook Sailwings, the early British manufacturer. Like one of Bob Lovejoy’s early Quicksilver prototypes, Len Gabriels’ 1977 Skyhook experimental glider had the ‘tail’ in front…
• Phoenix Mariah under Bird’s eye view in Hang gliding 1978 and 1979 part 1
• Peghiny Eagle under Developments 1978-9 in Hang gliding 1978 and 1979 part 2
• Peghiny Jaguar under Jaguar in Hang gliding 1978 and 1979 part 3
• Spectra Aolus

External link

Experimental in Three-sixty degree appraisal (hang gliding 1976) on Brave guys and beautiful dolls. It describes a pitch control problem relevant to the early Miles Wings Gulp and possibly also to the Markowski Eagle III.