In 1963 Mike Burns adapted the flexible wing to build a towable kite-hang glider he called Skiplane.

In 1960–1962 Barry Hill Palmer adapted the flexible wing concept to make foot-launched hang gliders with four different control arrangements. The various stiffening formats and the wing's simplicity of design and ease of construction, along with its capability of slow flight and its gentle landing characteristics, did not go unnoticed by hang glider enthusiasts. On 23 November 1948, Francis Rogallo and Gertrude Rogallo applied for a kite patent for a fully flexible kited wing with approved claims for its stiffenings and gliding uses the flexible wing or Rogallo wing, which in 1957 the American space agency NASA began testing in various flexible and semi-rigid configurations in order to use it as a recovery system for the Gemini space capsules. NASA's Paresev glider in flight with tow cable. Obtaining the safety benefits of being instructed is highly recommended and indeed a mandatory requirement in many countries. The Federation Aeronautique Internationale and national airspace governing organisations control some regulatory aspects of hang gliding. By the 1980s this ratio significantly improved, and since then pilots have been able to soar for hours, gain thousands of feet of altitude in thermal updrafts, perform aerobatics, and glide cross-country for hundreds of kilometers. Typically the pilot is in a harness suspended from the airframe, and controls the aircraft by shifting body weight in opposition to a control frame.Įarly hang gliders had a low lift-to-drag ratio, so pilots were restricted to gliding down small hills. Most modern hang gliders are made of an aluminium alloy or composite frame covered with synthetic sailcloth to form a wing. Hang gliding is an air sport or recreational activity in which a pilot flies a light, non-motorised foot-launched heavier-than-air aircraft called a hang glider. Hang glider just after launch from Salève, France

Hang glider manufacturers