The future of hang glider development

It's amazing that you're doing all this work with open source tools, and making your own stuff open source too! We need more of that in the world, I think. I would love to contribute at some point, as a programmer and an aviation enthusiast (although more of the sailplane kind) it is right up my street.

nice one Tim!

Great to know that there are still good keeps of the flame. In my 52 years of hang gliding (mostly in New England) and still at it, I feel so privileged to be apart of these communities of flyers through the early decades. I think there’s one area of the flex wing design and refinement that’s been overlooked some and that of wing tip the vortex drag flow reduction. Think raptor wing tip vortex feathers as they create multiple smaller vortexes creating lesser overall drag then one big air swirl. I’ve toyed with the thought of adding three off set shallow flow fences to the upper tip panels to reduce drag at higher speeds. We know some heavy high speed trike wings utilize small tabs to help with boundary control.

I was heavily involved in Hang Gliding for decades. Design basically stalled late 90s early 2000s. At that time, we were working to solve the 2 major problems to move to the next level. 1) The pilot is now the biggest percentage of the drag in the lift/drag hang glider equation. 2) As a "twisted wing" all chord lines are at a different angle of attack. The entire wing is never producing lift while still producing drag.
Solution one. Find a way to not only streamline the pilot/harness, but also find a way to make the pilot centerline be at "0" angle of attack (match the current glide slope) when gliding to greatly reduce drag, and even shape the harness to be a "lifting body" on a glide.
Solution 2, removing a lot of (all) wing twist while maintaining handling, stability, and avoiding harsh stall/spin characteristics. Also reduce overall weight and complexity.
Those are problems, but it seems like they're not being addressed by designers. Things have basically stalled for decades.
Good luck. Hopefully you are the "Guy" that promotes the sport to the next level.

I've often imagined a hang glider where the pilot doesn't hang at all, but flies with the harness flush with the wing, either immediately below it, placed between the wings, or immediately above, in imitation of avian anatomy. The pilot would rotate around an axle from vertical launch position to horizontal flight position. Enabling roll and pitch control in such a configuration, I'm sure the engineers could work out.

I think the future of hanggliding is vertical take off and landing.

Whenever a video avoids supplying actual performance figures, it annoys me.
Also, when terms like batten are used - WTF is that. How about a diagram or two? Maybe there is some rocket scientist guy just about to get involved in high tech hang gliders, but is put off by all your jargon!

Now, for example, I would like to know what the glide slope angle is for a 1960 hang glider versus a 1970 one and so on. Also, what is your aim? Another video says that the Concordia 28meter wing glider has a glide slope of 75:1 and that a "hang glider" (the year was not mentioned) was only 16:1 or thereabouts. If you can only get to say 18:1 with computer simulations and carbon fibre, isn't that a waste of time?

Also, if you don't have ANY spare time, how does getting given money by others, going to help that?

Good content, Sir. I wish there was a channel with much the same insight and detail, for paragliding! I can ‘watch-on’ and enjoy your work nevertheless 😃

As a fellow aerospace engineer I suggest the following:
- woopy-fly-style design for a well defined, super light weight aero shape
- seated flying position allowing the use of cheap and light weight PG harnesses + makes landing easier
- better means of control than just weight shifting (e.g. flaps, spoilers, wingtwist...)
- since this then is a novel vehicle: try to argue the regulator out of the stupid negativ g requirements.

As a windsurfer I would suggest you to look into construction of windsurfing sails. The mast is bent there, and it creates camber and quite rigid foil section. It does not need secondary beams. Film materials used for sails are smooth and light.

Another idea to reduce risks of life testing - use FPV drones technologies. You will need to build a 80-kg dummy with actuators imitating what a pilot is doing with hands and body, moving CoG back and forth, sides, and probably turns.

Good spirts! Maybe you could open a chapter in your project for packability to polite busability at low mass with moderate performance. We have given strong reference to your works in US Hawks forum in the topic: "The 5 ft-packed-HG Movement
Postby JoeF » Wed Jun 10, 2015 9:24 am" The pack aim is the treasured parameter, not super flight performance. It is anticipated the separation from dependence on cars, vans, trucks while allowing easy hiking and common use of city buses may bring on a new game for hang gliding. For some of us a "next-gen HG" will be one easily and politely carriable in the interior of a common city bus by the pilot.

looks great! i have some ideas for a next gen hangglider, but they're pretty revolutionary ;) any way i can contribute ?

Are you using a Prandtl span loaded wing?

FLAPS! OK, just give me FLAPS. Stopped flying top less because they are needed there and drogue is a bad option. Sticking with my sport 2's for now which are fine without this. Still would be nice though.

The weight shift control system is what "makes" a hang glider.
That technology has gone as far as it can go; your proofs are the gliders of Felix Ruehle.
High performance designs are an engineering deadend and have contributed to the demise of the sport.
Hang gliding needs to focus on CREATING AND NURTURING NEW PILOTS with an emphasis on beginning and intermediate level designs.
The US hang gliding association has also worked very hard to kill the sport over the last 20 years.

Yet another aero guy here... I bought a WillsWing Raven 209 from Torrey Pines back in 82ish. Moved to Ohio got married and it all went by the wayside. I loved that glider, Urusla. When she was strapped onto my 200sx for transport it was quite the sight.

I am retired now and working on FreeCad in my spare time. While my dance card is full, I am sure I can get the right people if you have questions. I know one guy who just did his Master's aero/mech work solely in FreeCad for a wind turbine. (wind turbine sounds sexier than wind turbine). My work on FreeCad is in the CAM area. I have a 3 axis CNC in the basement that can easily do A6061-T6

Instead of trying to invent a 7th generation design , why not keep your current puma high preformance wing and experiment with adding spoilers its been done before on flexwings
(the sensor) with great success.

Would a CofG instrumentation might be useful to tell you how much off the CofG you are (on a 2d plane) ? Eg a circle with your CofG as a dot relative to the centre. I don’t know much about this sport but am interested.

Hg needs to compete with PG. Lighter, easier to carry...that would be the next generation...imo

I just had an evening boating around in a low-hours Will Wing Sport 2. The glider was just flawless. Every turn, dive, stall, mush, spiral, climb out, thermal, launch, landing, all done easily and predictably with confidence. I guess what I’m saying is that, to me, that level of refinement in handling, stability and (relative) performance is just extraordinary. Maybe the materials used could be improved but honestly, in terms of transportation, cost and setup time, it’s just hard to beat for what it is! That’s why I’m truly interested to see what you have up your sleeve Tim. Best of luck.

High performance thin film Solar power with some small drone engines and props could be a revolution...

Thank you pursuing innovation. Variable sail area would be great. More area for thermally and slow flight and “retract” extra sail into a high wing loading wind for great glides and performance. Move the pilot into the wing to further reduce drag. Just brainstorming. Keep up good work.

Has anyone ever tried having a tail wing, which you can perhaps control with your feet? Watching seagulls fly you can see they twist their tail feathers sometimes.

as a long term HG pilot and now 15 yrs sailplane driver, there are some interesting areas of potential cross-pollenation to consider. Without going into detail I will simply list them here:
1 winglets
2 zig-zag spoiler strips
3 trailing edge aeriation to keep flow attached
4 water ballast
5 fencing. Windflow lines on your computer model did not indicate progressive spanwise flow.
6 variable anhedral
7 flaps
8 harness development, e.g. aerodynamic shape, ruddering, helmet fairing (moto gp)
9 ways of improving high speed polar
10 other ways fo controlling draggy washout (integrate with VG?)

Hope some of this triggers some ideas.
ATB B

may I join research & improvements?

I applaud your effort and hope you succeed. I'm not an engineer, but have lots of flying time in lots of different aircraft. Everything I've ever flown has been a product of compromise. Hang gliders are no exception (as many commentators have already said in one way or another). If you look at sailplane progress it has been mainly due to increased aspect ratios, refined airfoils and composite construction. Hang gliders have naturally limiting wing span dimensions for reasons of weight and transportation. In order to accommodate launch and landing on legs means slow speeds and therefore very light wing loading. This combination means low aspect ratios, so I don't see how its possible to get a significant increase in performance given these parameters. Unfortunately, if you want to carry a wing on top of your car and launch it by running down a hill, we will be stuck with L/D performance around the current numbers. I hope I'm wrong!

I really liked the person who commented on the virtues of the Sport 2. A simple, reliable, affordable and fun to fly glider (BTW, the three is even better!). The quest for more performance will most certainly entail a compromise in the simplicity and cost categories.

BUT.... I will quote an old proverb my boss used to have on hanging on his office wall. "Man who says it cannot be done should not stand in the way of the man doing it."

Best of luck!

Congrats for your work. A topless glider with bearings at the wing tips and some sort of FLAPS would be THE dream machine

AI-enhanced gliders that automatically adjust to air currents for improved safety and range could be good

The bigest problem with hang gliding will always be Accessibility.
Thats why paragliding is booming.

lighter sail material, non removable battens, telescopic folding under 2m, less than 15kg

yeah, man. hang gliders ARE amazing!

i cant watch this, it makes me want to hang glide again, TOO badly! Must....wait...til kids...grow up....their mom...is.....nuts....

Many thanks - the algorithm brought me here several months late! Very interesting video. I am depressed to admit that I first flew Rogallos half a century ago - those who say the sport is new should compare it to Wilbur and Orville Wright. By equivalence, it should all be in the jet age by now! My then gf bought me a weekend course at Steyning Bowl, Sussex, in 1974 and I loved it! But I went on to microlights, got a job abroad and never followed through, apart from a weekend flying at Swaffham, Norfolk to learn winch launching. Didn't stop me doodling designs and making the odd model of what I wanted, however - although I stress I am not a mathematician. In my old age I would like to fly a hang glider inside a 'gondola', a bit like a lightweight microlight fuselage. IMO the issue also seems to be whether Dacron covering can be improved or dispensed with - at the expense of breaking down the HG/ease of transport. There was a video a few years ago of someone coating their HG with ultraviolet proofing gel, which added weight but reduced drag. I think carbon fibre is the way to go, if the cost can be lowered. Maybe a hybrid wing with velcro-joined carbon fibre panels, especially on the top surface, and Dacron underneath. Winglets, anyone? I could go on for hours - which is really your job! Best wishes from London.

Alpha 235 is a step in the right direction. Focus on making slower, lighter weight gliders with low sink rates and responsive controls would help improve safety by allowing soaring flight in PG wind speeds.

Avian

Is FreeCad useful yo study wind tunnel / aerodynamic of concept cars?

I am still looking for a replacement of autodesks project valcon

What app do you use to simulate planes?

Probably a stupid question: How did the wings of the UP Comet wings twist in the turn?

Thanks for the interesting overview of progress and lack there of. I wish I had technical expertise to contribute but I don't. Despite my lack of expertise I do play around in my head with ideas for moving the hang position closer to the wing in order to produce more of a bird like feeling. I keep my eye out for designers who might be working on that idea but haven't found any.

I'm a professional aerospace engineer and a fairly inactive H4. I really felt like the main limitations on HG design involve competition rules that insist the wing has no control surfaces. As you correctly point out, the floating crossbar is a mechanical control surface, albeit quite different looking than an elevon. I always wondered why we stopped short of linking the sprogs mechanically to the hang strap so that the pilot is putting in real elevon control with weight shift. Having to choose between glide and turning is a uniquely hang glider problem seemingly imposed by this allergy to control surfaces. Things like the ICARUS V (mechanical rudders) come to mind.

Anyway exciting stuff. Send me a message and let me know if there's anything I can do to help!

I left hang gliding back in the day when I was flying an Electra Flyer Olympus 180 which was a fairly high aspect ratio 3rd generation (?) glider. I'm pretty slightly built and that was about the heaviest glider I could safely ground handle and launch and the landing speed was manageable. I really didn't care about penetration speed and cross country capability, but just liked to soar so it was a perfect fit for me.

I have envisioned advancements in the foot launched gliders for a long time. Quit flying in the mid 80s, right when the comet came out. I would guess that the next big step will be some thing between a foot launched glider and a more modern hang glider. You don't get higher performance without higher speeds, but higher speeds mean they are not so easy to take off and land unless you have a good head wind. This would rule out a lot of thermal conditions.

You can use vortex generator blades to design the next generation of hang gliders.

man love it that you get something moving in this sport! keep it going!!