At the end of the day, we were exhausted and happy. Leo Berez made the first real flight on the very first run - the new cage position was helping! Not everyone who tried it before it started to fall apart actually flew, but everyone felt that it could fly, and some short glides were accomplished. Then it was back up the hill for more tests. After some discussion they decided that the pilots just weren’t getting their weight far enough forward - the nose would go up and not come back down.īack in the shop, they got the cage moved forward, and padded the cage bars that had given everyone armpit bruises. It was thrilling, and big hops were accomplished, but no real flying. This was going to take some real finesse.Įveryone took turns running down the hill at full speed. The wing was either stalling or nose-diving. After a brief discussion of technique, he ran down the hill - and didn’t leave the ground. I didn’t want the kids getting more than a foot or two off the ground. While Tywen Kelly donned his protective gear, I tied a leash to the keel. In a few moments the gang had tied dozens of guy wires from the leading-edge poles to the pilot cage. Someone pointed out that we didn’t have to keep it from drooping, we only needed to keep it from bending up. We couldn’t stop laughing at how noodly the whole contraption was. We started cutting PVC.Īs it took shape, the idea that someone was going to fly down a hill in this overgrown kite seemed alternately exciting and ludicrous. Some math ensued and we arrived at our first fixed dimension: the keel of the craft would be 15 feet long. A note in the unintelligible plans implied that we wanted a “wing-loading” (the weight of the craft and pilot, divided by surface area of the wing) of between 1 and 2 pounds per square foot of wing. Trying to deduce dimensions from the photograph, they quickly discovered that the perspective was really distorting things. They would have to figure out how to deal with that in the design. Compared to a 10-foot stick of bamboo, a 10-foot PVC pipe is like a heavy cooked noodle. The tinkerers immediately clued in to the fact that PVC is not a great substitute for bamboo. The first hurdle was that we didn’t have any bamboo, but we did have plenty of ¾-inch PVC pipe. Some might call this hubris, but we like to think of it as gumption. No matter - we had the picture and a dab of collective knowledge of aerodynamics to convince us that it was possible. The photo shows a design referred to as the Bamboo Butterfly, but try as we might, we could only find one low-res scan of a handmade copy of the original plans. We at the Tinkering School had been kicking around the idea of making a hang glider for a couple of years, and this picture convinced me that a group of 12- to 16-year-old kids could do it. There’s a photo on Wikipedia of two gleeful brothers flying hang gliders they’ve made from duct tape, plastic sheeting, and bamboo. Gift the gift of Make: Magazine this holiday season! Subscribe to the premier DIY magazine todayĬommunity access, print, and digital Magazine, and more Share a cool tool or product with the community.įind a special something for the makers in your life. Skill builder, project tutorials, and more Get hands-on with kits, books, and more from the Maker Shed Initiatives for the next generation of makers. Membership connects and supports the people and projects that shape our future and supports the learning.
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