Fatal error: Uncaught InvalidArgumentException: Cannot load XML: Entity 'brvbar' not defined , flags=$flags (LIBXML_COMPACT LIBXML_PARSEHUGE LIBXML_NOENT ), LIBXML_VERSION=21206, xml={XML} <r>Available on Amazon Prime is the documentary "The Flyinest Flying".<br/> It was released in 2003 and goes into the history of hang gliding with<br/> indisputable evidence of the origins of our sport. All of the principle <br/> inventors, their timeline of contributions and all in their own words!!<br/> <br/> Being very knowledgeable of this history myself, I found no flaws.<br/> I also learned some of the answers I had doubts about based on rumor<br/> and mis-information. It was refreshing to see such attention to detail<br/> and the effort to get honest statements from the principle inventors that<br/> led to our current sport. <br/> <br/> As I had always believed by my own research, Hang Gliding as we know it<br/> is the product of multiple creative inventors who were inspired by different<br/> goals at different times. These developments took place very quickly in<br/> succession from mid 1950's to late 1960's approx 15 years time span.<br/> <br/> Once the cat was out of the bag and enough people saw the potential,<br/> Hang Gliding exploded with innovation during the 70's. In the history of<br/> aviation, no other type of flight has grown so quickly and been so accessible<br/> to so many as hang gliding did in the 1970's. Those who flew then and those<br/> who fly now, roughly for the last fifty years are the lucky ones. We are the <br/> the ones that woke up from the dream of flight to awaken in the reality of <br/> flight! <br/> <br/> On your feet, running into the wind, leaving the earth for a time, then <br/> returning to it on your feet once again. This has been one of mans greatest <br/> dreams fulfilled. No one who enjoys this sport and it's reality should take<br/> this for granted. So many who are no longer here have shown us errors<br/> not to be repeated. No one who flys a glider has not benefited by these<br/> sacrifices. <br/> <br/> The sacrifices are not just tragic ones, many are choices people make to <br/> serve the greater good for our sports continuation. Lots of other ways to <br/> make more money, but they teach and nurture new pilots for the love of <br/> flying more than the money it brings. This is most every HG school today.<br/> <br/> Referring back to the Film Documentry where John Dickinson discusses <br/> his invention of the early 1960's inspired by the Rogallo wing. He designed<br/> a control system using weight shift and an A frame we call the "control bar".<br/> This one contribution made the Rogallo wing viable as a foot launched soaring<br/> machine. But it would be many years later that goal was realized. John<br/> Dickinson filed a provisional patent for his invention and began building and<br/> selling gliders. <br/> <br/> Provisional Patents are not patents, they are temporary holds on idea's so <br/> you can market them and see if it's worth a full patent and all the expenses <br/> that come with it. Here in USA a provisional patent is good for one year. <br/> By one year you must file a full patent or you lose your idea to the public <br/> domain. No one can patent it since it was your idea. It becomes public <br/> domain so anyone can use your idea or be inspired by it, just as John <br/> Dickinson was by Rogallo's kite and parachutes researched by NASA <br/> Rogallo's employer.<br/> <br/> John Dickinson did have a novel idea to make the Rogallo wing usable for <br/> flight. No one can deny that. How he came to that idea can be imagined<br/> by his experience&acirc;&euro;&brvbar; He was a water skier who used ski kites "Flat Kites"<br/> towed behind a ski boat. He owned and flew a gyro copter or gyro glider.<br/> A ski kite uses weight shift to control it, so does a gyro copter. The gyro<br/> copter hangs from the center of the rotor blades and you piviot from this<br/> center point. The original plans for a gyro copter have a stick hanging<br/> from above, not a control stick from below. Note pics below..<br/> <br/> <IMG src="http://aviastar.org/foto/bensen_gyroglider.jpg"><URL url="http://aviastar.org/foto/bensen_gyroglider.jpg">http://aviastar.org/foto/bensen_gyroglider.jpg</URL></IMG><br/> <br/> <IMG src="http://ozreport.com/data/Dickenson/Dickenson_files/image014.png"><URL url="http://ozreport.com/data/Dickenson/Dickenson_files/image014.png"><LINK_TEXT text="http://ozreport.com/data/Dickenson/Dick ... age014.png">http://ozreport.com/data/Dickenson/Dickenson_files/image014.png</LINK_TEXT></URL></IMG><br/> <br/> If you can imagine the relationship with weight shift since he is already<br/> flying two craft, Ski Kite and Gyro Glider that both use weight shift.<br/> So he combined the two and had enough knowledge to make it work.<br/> Work well enough to file a provisional patent and build and sell his idea.<br/> No less brilliant than a sole inventor.<br/> <br/> He built and sold his idea which was refined from the above pic of his 1st model.<br/> At the end of that year he did not file a full patent. In the film he says that he<br/> lacked the money to file it. However there is more to the story as there always<br/> is.. Several explanations can be hypothesized?<br/> <br/> 1. Sales were not enough to validate expense for full patent.<br/> 2. Not enough interest in ski kites since foot launch had not occurred yet.<br/> 3. He realized that a large part of his patent was Rogallo Wing Patent.<br/> 4. Patent of control frame alone was not yet popular enough.<br/> <br/> Most likely the reason Mr. Dickinson did not patent is all of the above combined.<br/> In the film he regrets not doing it but that is hindsight. What I am going to say<br/> now, no one has said before, or more accurate, that I have heard said before?<br/> <br/> We all owe Mr. Dickinson a debt of gratitude for not filing a full patent..<br/> I truley mean that and most sincerely mean it. Thank You.<br/> <br/> Why do I feel so strongly about this?<br/> And why should you also look at history this way?<br/> <br/> Imagine if John had filed patents on his version of the hang glider and all<br/> the law suites which may have resulted. It would have stifled the explosive<br/> growth of hang gliding. What we have today might be much different.<br/> Who can really say? Maybe para gliders would have eclipsed all of<br/> hang gliding and blotted out the sun by now. There is an alternative to<br/> the sky puffs because of John Dickinson and his peers who kept pushing<br/> the limits and who said, "the hell with patents&acirc;&euro;&brvbar;"<br/> <br/> Because of this and the energy it generated through un-encumbered innovation <br/> through the many thousands of contributors that passionatly followed, we grew<br/> and prospered. Hang Gliding pilots now fill the ranks of aviation professionals.<br/> No longer is Hang Gliding looked at as a fools thrill ride. It is a respected form<br/> of aviation that awes even the most accomplished aviators.<br/> <br/> Ours is a history as relevant and sensational as any in the history of aviation.<br/> If you count the loss it equals a mitilary victory, if you count the technical <br/> advancements it ranks as a high bar in human achievement. And yet, unlike<br/> other forms of aviation advancement, it was not funded by the State. It was<br/> funded and fueled mostly by passion and the quest to reach one of mans greatest<br/> dreams. <br/> <br/> <br/> B R</r> {/XML} in /home/davisstraub/public_html/davisstraub/OZ/forum/vendor/s9e/text-formatter/src/Renderer.php:48 Stack trace: #0 /home/davisstraub/public_html/davisstraub/OZ/forum/vendor/s9e/text-formatter/src/Renderers/PHP.php(303): s9e\TextFormatter\Renderer->loadXML('<r>Available on...') #1 /home/davisstraub/public_html/davisstraub/OZ/forum/vendor/s9e/text-formatter/src/Renderer.php(78): s9e\TextFormatter\Renderers\PHP->renderRichText('<r>Available on...') #2 /home/davisstraub/public_html/davisstraub/OZ/forum/phpbb/textformatter/s9e/renderer.php(250): s9e\TextFormatter\Renderer->render('<r>Available on...') #3 /home/davisstraub/public_html/davisstraub/OZ/forum/includes/functions_content.php(600): phpbb\textformatter\s9e\renderer->render('<r>Available on...') #4 /home/davisstraub/public_html/davisstraub/OZ/forum/viewtopic.php(1800): generate_text_for_display('<r>Available on...', 'saoic0', '', 2, true) #5 {main} thrown in /home/davisstraub/public_html/davisstraub/OZ/forum/vendor/s9e/text-formatter/src/Renderer.php on line 48