The designer, a graduate in Mechanical Engineering from U. C. Berkeley, was designing and flying flexible wing hang gliders as early as 1960, which was the very start of the modern hang gliding movement. He designed, built and test flew snowmobile engined aircraft he called "ultra-light" (as registered with the FAA in the Experimental Category) in 1967, at the very start of the Ultralight aircraft movement. He has been plying the waters of (mainly) Florida and Puget Sound country in airboats and sevs of his design over the past 25 years, while serving as a staff engineer in aerospace, working on projects from rocket engines to spacecraft components and acoustics.)

An Early Trike

The craft, which had a 26.5 foot wingspan and weighed 145# empty with a 180#  payload, originally started out with 32in diameter 1 blade propellers, with  counterweights and flapping hinges, but one of these units tossed itself out of  the test zone and made the designer go conservative.

With a rate of climb with the two blade propellers of only 60 feet per  minute, the craft, though very docile in handling, took careful power management  when flying at low levels. One time someone walked out onto the middle of the  runway as the craft was coming in, to photograph as it came in, leaving the only  option to land in the 'glades next to the runway. This machine, once committed  to landing, simply did not want to climb out before touching down!

The primary frame structure was 2in sq architectural sections, with the 17  foot long main spars and spreader made from bolted 6061-T6 aluminum tubing. The  craft spring landing gear was polyester fiberglass over balsa construction. A  plastic kitchen chair was used for the seat and the engines were started  from the seat using recoil starters.

The second  craft, Skyhook, in spite of its early date of origin, had most of the attributes  of a modern ultralight, except it used a single cylinder snowmobile engine, as  the twins were not available at the early date. It was powered by a 17hp at  5000rpm single cylinder JLO L297 two stroke engine, driving a composite  propeller designed and built by this designer, via a 2.1/1 reduction gearbox.  The engine was electric start, and the craft had fiberglass composite spring  landing gear. Airframe construction was bolted 6061-T6 aluminum thin wall tube,  with 6061 T-6 extruded angle. The craft took off, flew, and landed at very near  30mph.

The FAA inspector who first saw the Paraplane inspected it with a bit of  skepticism, and possibly approved with the attitude that "It'l never get off the  ground". The same inspector looked over Skyhook a very short time and spent most  of his time explaining to members a growing crowd that the things actually fly.

Video clip of Skyhook(Use your browser back button to return to this site.)

FIRST FLIGHTS IN DECEMBER, OF 1960,, this is possibly  the predecessor of the earliest example of a modern hang glider. It is  one of 7 or 8 or so gliders built by the designer The first, which was built of  salvaged aluminum tubing, polyethylene sheeting and drafting tape, had an out of  pocket expense of $10.89.

 The  spars and keel were 22 feet in length, so launches of the 40 lb aircraft could  be accomplished easily even in no wind. Flights got up to 600 feet in length and  as high as 80 feet. The last of the series flew in the summer of 1962, and had a  swinging seat, which expanded the flying capability well beyond the "true hang"  armpit supports.

Video clip of Hang glider

Foot launched powered parawing around 1963, 7 hp West Bend driving a 3 foot  dia. glass over balsa propeller. Main structure is 6061-T6 aluminum tubing,  4 mil polyethylene. Return to main Sevtec surface skimmer  page

If you think that there might be a problem assigning names to inventions,  check out Airplane  Invention. Who really did invent the airplane? My conclusion is that we  stand on the "shoulders" of each other's work, and there is no true inventor. If  a name has to be assigned to an invention, the airplane belongs to Otto  Lillenthal, definitely not the Wrights. The reader may wish to check out the  chain of evidence in the aforementioned website.