Hang Gliding is an air sport activity in which a pilot flies light weighted wings made of tough fabric over a strong frame. This sport developed in the late 1960s. It takes about 15 to 20 minutes to set up and prepare to launch. Hang gliders are launched when the pilot runs from a hilltop or peak in the wind. The pilot controls the aircraft by shifting body weight in opposition to a control frame.
Hang gliding is a very expensive sport. Gliders are wide, delta- shaped cruises that use gravity and thermal updrafts to maintain flight. Hang gliding was first invented in the 1890s by some of the settlers of air travel. In 1891, German aviator Otto Lilienthal began a series of thousands of successful flights using a glider before perishing in a fatal glider accident in 1896.
Lilienthal's glider was known for its repeated, successful breakouts, and before his death, his designs were published, along with kits for others to make their own gliders. These early gliders were biplanes, meaning that they had two sets of wings and were controlled by a pilot hanging from a parallel bar beneath the craft by the armpits.
The modern version of hang gliding began in the 1960s, replacing Lilienthal's biplane design with a more aerodynamic, delta- shaped passage, inspired by the kite designs of Francis and Gertrude Rogallo. Initially, these gliders were used to glide down the coastal hills of California strands or draw behind stinkpots in Australia, similar to paragliding.
The modern hang glider was constructed by John Dickenson, an Australian, who added a swing seat to the Rogallo kite design. Hang gliding quickly rose in fashionability throughout the United States in the 1970s, and continual advancements to the sport have been made since also. Hang gliders use graveness as their means of propulsion, meaning that the craft is always flying over from its starting point.
Still, by locating and flying into thermal updrafts, gliders can stay above for extended periods of time, indeed hours, before wharf. In 1999, the world- record flight distance for a hang glider came in at 308 miles. International hang gliding is overseen by the Internationale (FAI), which organizes many world crowns for hang gliders. American hang gliding activities are overseen by the United States Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association (USHPA).