Cool Glider - Never seen one like this.

[OtisAir]

 

[tonycondon]

foot launch rigid wing gliders is a progression from the hang glider world. light enough to just jump off a hill but better glide performance than a hang glider. Stan Hall, designer of my glider, attempted to build a foot launch glider in the 70s with his "Vector" but it turned out too heavy. He did fly it a few times by auto towing it though.

 

[vontresc]

This one is a Swift

http://aero.stanford.edu/Reports/SWIFTArticle1991.html

And it's still being manufactured by a place in Belgium.

http://www.aeriane.com/

 

[PittsDriver]

Watching that video makes me think of the coffin corner that helos have with forward speed and altitude. If you let the wind get you very high at all without any forward speed you'd be in the hurt locker if the gust died. But I guess that's no different than not having enough speed margin for gusts on taking off and landing in anything.

 

[flyingcheesehead]

Watching that video makes me think of the coffin corner that helos have with forward speed and altitude. If you let the wind get you very high at all without any forward speed you'd be in the hurt locker if the gust died. But I guess that's no different than not having enough speed margin for gusts on taking off and landing in anything.

Of course, I'd imagine that if you did stay low, the resulting "gear collapse" when the gust died would really hurt too!

 

[Danos]

That's extremely cool!

 

[Skip Miller]

It's the Fred Flintstone model! Cool!!

-Skip

 

[JeffDG]

That's what I call a "self-launch"

 

[Tristar]

Oh cool! I want one!

 

[Maxmosbey]

I have never had any desire to fly in a glider,,,,,,,,,until now.