BRITISH HANG GLIDING HISTORY

THE MODERN FLEXWING

 

 

 

 

Tony Prentice  
 

Flying his Lilienthal replica

Early Flying trials of my Otto Lilienthal replica glider took place over a two week period on the Northdowns, in Southern England during the summer of 1968. However, because of the limitations of the film format and the lack of help to undertake the filming, only the first tentative attempts at flight are shown. Conditions were not ideal with the wind direction blowing across the hill necessitating trying to take off across a gully in the hillside. As full flying speed could not be reached the machine is shown stalling. Later in the trials, flights were achieved down the main slope into wind covering a distance of 100 yards. The last flight of the trials was into a much stronger wind where a run was not required and some hovering flights were made. Eventually control was lost and the machine was damaged in a ground loop. Later the machine was rebuilt with some modifications added and it flew again in the early 70’s before being damaged again.

Tony started building the Replica in 1963/64

This film footage was taken in 1968

 

 

 

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