1971 Ground Skimmer

BRITISH HANG GLIDING HISTORY THE MODERN FLEXWING

1981 Cross Country Flyer

1972

'Cam Long Down' photo from Google

51deg 41' 39.91"N--2deg 19' 16.79" W

Les Hocking made the very first flight on the McBroom hang glider taking off at Camlong Down near Dursley, becoming the first person to fly a so called modern flexwing hang glider in the UK. At the moment the exact date is unknown, although it is believed to have been in March 1972. Both Geoff and Les talk of freezing fingers as they prepared the glider for its first flight. I'm not sure of the order in which they flew but we do know that Geoff had a flight and that at some time Tony Gillette also learnt to fly.

An article from Geoff McBroom on a brief history of how they built the first British Hang Glider that flew from Cam Long Down during March 1972.

On another occasion (some time between April and June) when Geoff and his team were flying from Frocester Hill (Google Earth coordinates 51deg 42' 2.30" N -2deg 18' 12.20" W). and a time when they were all quite proficient, according to Geoff. Arthur Duke another member of Geoff's team took some photos of the glider. It was also reported that during the day Tony Gillette under took the first cross country flight, when he managed to get over the hedge at the bottom of the slope. (he says with tongue in cheek) These photos were developed with other photos that had on the end of the roll of film coverage of the Wimbledon Tennis championships. Arthur has worked out by the order of the photos on the roll that the photos were taken between April and June before Wimbledon.

Arthur Dukes Quote "I have checked the date, I had a previous film developed in April and a later one, which contained pictures of Wimbledon tennis, obviously taken in June, developed in September. So  the pictures dated June were taken between April and early June 72. Regards Art" Unquote.

Further information on these photos Geoff Quotes "It's useful that Arthur Duke took a few pics and can date these, but I believe we flew earlier than April. I can recall cutting and drilling the tubes in bitter cold during winter, and the day we took it to Camlong Down for the first flight it was like Siberia, with no leaves on the trees. Arthur's pictures, are not from the first outings on Camlong Down but show a considerably later outing at the bottom of Frocester Hill when we were all quite proficient. I particularly remember this day because it was when Tony Gillette did the first British hang gliding cross country. He got a rather good take off and landed on the other side of the hedge at the bottom of the field !! If you go to Google Earth, co-ordinates 51deg 42' 22.30" N  , 2 deg 18' 12.20" W  you can see the field in Arthur's pictures, complete with housing over the hedge. (there are no houses on Camlong Down) Half the Gliding Club members are in the background hoping to see bloodshed. You can also see the Frocester trig point on the top of the hill in 2 of the pics". Unquote

Feb/March issue of 'Sailplane and Gliding' has an article from Ann Welch describing how hang gliding is taking off in the USA, and that it might soon arrive on our shores.

April/May issue of 'Sailplane and Gliding'. After a large response from people all over the country about her earlier article, Ann Welch undertook more research on the subject and published a follow up article in which she mentions at the start that she knows of three gliders that have already been built. Its well worth a read.

Early in the year, enter the next group of enthusiasts the Haynes Brothers Robin, Terence and John. Terry Haynes (Waspair) recalls seeing an American magazine in the early 70's with an illustration of a primitive Rogallo glider skimming sand dunes. He’s pretty sure it had a bamboo structure that supported the pilot under his arm pits rather than what is now the conventional 'A' frame and central hang point. This all led to some scaling up of illustrations, some weird experiments, and eventually several flights from Box Hill in Surrey. “It was all wildly experimental and included ideas about reflex that were somewhat under-developed so we tended to tighten cables if things looked a bit wobbly without fully appreciating what we were doing to aerodynamics. This led to some interesting characteristics and I can remember very clearly stalling out after getting some lift over a tree line and going UP, which we didn't actually think was possible until then, and then coming down to earth very quickly and doing a gammy leg in.” Terry also mentioned that at one time they visited the patents office to try and have a look at Rogallo’s patents and suddenly became aware of Bill Bennett's Patent for the hang glider and from there things hooked together. Terry’s personal records show that they became airborne on Box hill in August 1972 and he has an article from the London Evening Standard newspaper to support his claim that I hope to publish later.

Waspair began experimenting with a hang glider that became known as the “A” type. The very first prototype was called No1 and its sail was glued on to the frame. The “A” type had a 19ft wing boom, an 80-degree nose angle, 5-degree billow, and its total sail area of 220sq-ft. Four of these were built over a period of about a year. The sail material was rip-stop nylon. Plans were also supplied to other enthusiasts around the country.

During the summer Nick Regan and a friend designed their own hang glider, and built it during October. Nick was in touch with Joe Faust in the USA at the time, having read one of his early hang gliding magazines “Low and Slow”. They based their glider on the “Kilbo plans” drawn up by Dave Kilborne from the USA, which were distributed free in the “Low and Slow” magazine #6 in mid 1971. Once again the Kilbo plans were a copy of one of Bill Bennett’s early hang gliders.

21st July. Tony Prentice receives a few letters from an E.A. Hulton in London asking if he would like to help form a hang gliding club. Proving that there were other groups of would be flyers around the country, all trying to get into the air at the same time, while totally unaware of each other. During this year alone (72) so far I've made contact with at least 7 different people, possibly 8 (or as many as 10), because I'm waiting to hear back from Justin Wills. Gerry Breen has informed me that he was also building and flying in 1972. Plus I'm also trying to track down another couple of guys that could have also been around at that time.

Selsey Birdman Rally was held in 1972 but the date is unknown. It was published in two American magazines.

August. Dave Watts was also one of the very early pioneers, although his name is not as well known as Geoff’s. Dave became interested while sitting in a dentist waiting room and reading a National Geographic magazine.  An article described a meeting in Southern California to celebrate the 123rd anniversary of Otto Lilliental's birthday on 23rd May 1848, so the magazine  was definitely dated late 1971. Dave says he designed and built his first glider based on the American ‘Batso’ design. Not having access to bamboo, he made the glider from sailing boat spars (18 gauge-2in) he had purchased from a Brighton company known as Andersons and covered it with black polythene. The frame was held together with aluminum scaffold clamps. He called it “The Black Polythene Bat”.  Dave flew after Geoff, but was in contact with him, at a time when Geoff was reducing his gliders down from 280 to 240 sq-ft. Ditchling was the only place steep enough to ensure that his glider actually made it into the air. Although I must say that the photograph of Dave flying from Ditchling, bears no resemblance to a Batso airframe and control system. You can clearly see an ‘A’ frame. He may have used a set of Batso plans, but apart from perhaps using the wing size information it doesn’t seem like he has followed those plans very closely. Having a harness or seat would be a complete break away from the Batso design, which was a slightly altered copy of the Bat Glider. I’ll stick my neck out here and say that I believe it looks more like he used the Kilbro Plans, which were around during 1971. He was also in contact with Jack Lambie, who sent him plans for his biplane 'Low and Slow and out of control'. (Dave’s words not mine). Dave is also reported to be the first person in the UK to fly a reefing hang glider, (variable billow, and/or geometry). Going by the photo of Dave's first flight at Ditchling and looking at the vegetation around him I'm assuming that the flight was at the height of the summer, sadly at the moment cant be any more actuate than that, but like I've said before 'who was keeping records'.

Len Gabriels remembers seeing an article on the Television news that mentioned Bill Bennett’s visit to the UK. This also opens up the possibility that Bill Bennett, although an Australian living in American was also one of the very early flyers in the UK?

Not being able to accurately date both Dave Watts flight and Bill Bennett's, its quite hard to say who was before who, but it seems they were round about the same time. Anybody remember seeing the newspaper article that Len Gabriels mentions?

3rd September. The Southdown Gliding Club hosted their 50th anniversary of the 1922 Itford first meeting at Firle Beacon. Geoff McBroom demonstrated 2 of his hang gliders. Its reported that on one flight he made a couple of beats along the ridge in 20-25 mph winds and eventually got caught in a rotor. Tony Prentice was also at the meeting demonstrating one of his bamboo constructed gliders. Geoff McBrooms Quote "Incidentally, after looking through your enormous amount of info, I'm pretty sure it must have been Tony Prentice I met at the conventional gliding anniversary meet at Ditchling. There was only one other hang glider there (which didn't fly) and I remember chatting to him". Unquote

Tonys version of events, Quote "Contrary to Geoff''s comment and your reporting the bamboo machine did fly although I was not prepared to fly it on the ridge due to the strong conditions. Geoff eventualy ended up in rotor and ground looped his glider. Unquote.

Geoff and Glider

Tony and Glider

October/November. Geoff McBroom became the first person in the UK to claim a flight duration record of 8 1/2 minutes while flying one of his own gliders at the Westbury White Horse. Photos

October/November. Len Gabriels wrote to Geoff McBroom to purchase a set of plans and Geoff did not get back to him for a few weeks, later explaining that he had broken his arm (s) while flying his glider. Whether this was the original glider or another model we don’t know.

???? Ken Messenger met up with Bill Bennett an Australian living in California at the time, when Bennett visited the local water ski club (possibly the South Cerney Flooded gravel pits) to demonstrated a new man carrying kite which could be towed behind a boat to a good height and then release to glide back onto the water. It looked terrific and Ken wondered if it would be possible to glide from the local hills near Marlborough. Bill kindly agreed to show him it could be done and the next day they visited a suitable local site for the demonstration. Unfortunately, the wind was far too strong and all Ken witnessed was a 10 second flight on a slope close to the bottom of the hill. Later he realised that Bill had been pretty brave doing even that short flight. Ken asked Bill to send him a glider from the USA.

October/November. An article titled 'A Pilot's Guide to the Revolution' by Ann Welch appeared in the 'Sailplane & Gliding' magazine, and gives basic account of how Ann has seen gliding's development over the years and where she thinks it might be going, especially by those's with a love of flying and a lack of money.

Len Gabriels believes this was around October/November having seen an article in the Sunday Empire News, on Geoff’s record.

Early November Nick Regan finally flew his own designed flexwing hang glider at Farnham Park. A year later I wrote to Nick for advice and he sent me a great reply that I wish I could find and add to this article, sadly I think its long been mislaid.

November Gerry Breen has told me that he based his first hang glider on Geoff McBroom’s design, although up until then he had only seen one photo of it. He describes his machine as his clear polythene covered Himets aluminium scaffold tube hang glider. The first flight he made was at Whitehorse Hill near Wantage in November 1972. However, it turned out to be much too heavy and large to handle, so he cut it down to a reasonable size and managed some significant soaring flights in January 1973 from various hills including Hay Bluff. The Daily Telegraph did an article about his 17 minute soaring flight in early '73 and he has newspaper cuttings of the event that I hope I can add at some time.

November. Bill Bennett made a film for the BBC Television company called 'Record Breakers' at the home of the London Gliding Club on Dunstable Downs.

Len Gabriels reports that he first became interested after seeing an article in a children’s “Look & Learn” magazine which described, with artist’s impressions, what the hippies in California were doing with bamboo poles and polythene sheet using the parallel bar system. Gliding down sand dunes, it even advised would be flyers not to fly higher than they would want to fall. Len had been a lifelong aero-modeler from the age of 12. He had trained as an engineer, served in the RAF and worked in an aircraft factory. He fully understood the theory, design and the building of aircraft. However, he had never flown one and the article sparked him into action, as he wanted to be up there flying alongside his model aircraft. At first he started to make miniatures like the article showed, and chuck them about. Then during October/November of the same year, the Sunday Empire News, (a long defunct broadsheet) ran a half a page spread on Geoff McBroom who had already made one and flown it for a British record of around 8 minutes. This really got Len fired up and he wrote to Geoff, but received no reply for several weeks and even then, it was only to say he had broken his arm(s) hang gliding and apologised for the slow reply. However, by this time Len was excited and impatient he had finalised his little models and bought tube, cloth, etc and proceeded to make one of his own. The dimensions were all his own and according to Len there wasn’t really anything to copy from. However, he does remember seeing the ‘A’ frame on the newspaper photo of Geoff McBroom’s first glider.

Boxing Day Len Gabriels along with a few of his fellow aero-modeler friends attempts to fly but could not get airborne. Not realising how steep a hill was needed.

It's reported in the Dec-1972--Jan 1973 'Sailplane & Gliding' magazine that Justine Wills was flying a hang glider. Although an exact date has not yet been confirmed, or what glider he was flying at the time and where. Its assumed that it was some time during 1972 before the article was written. What is interesting is that the photo in the magazine clearly shows his glider to have a King Post. While all other photos up until then did not have one, and it was not until some time in 1974 that Geoff McBroom made a public recommendation that all hang gliders should have a King Post. Justine is the son of Philip Wills, the famous British Sailplane pilot and pioneer. The magazine has 2 articles of interest, One of Geoff McBroom and Les Hockings, and another One from Philip Wills.

First to fly in the UK

1) Les Hocking

2) Geoff McBroom

3) Tony Gillette

4) Robin Hayne

5) John Hayne

6) Terry Haynes

7) Dave Watts

8) Bill Bennett

9) Nick Regan

10 Gerry Breen

Justin Wills certainly fits in some where on this list, but for the moment I do not have an exact date. However, from conversations I've had with different people and articles I've mention in 'Sailplane & Gliding" It seems he was certainly flying before December. At a guess I would say he could possible be in position 9, which would mean that Nick and Gerry might each drop one place. Plus there is also the possibility that there were other flyers, who I have not found and made contact with as of today 16.12.08.