British Hang Gliding History. The Prone Harness

The Prone Harness

The prone harness first appeared in the UK during the early part of 1974.

Frank Tarjanyi recalls that in early 1974 Terry Haynes from Waspair was the first to use a prone harness. Which he flew while connected to a Wasp 229. Terry is reported to have made the harness after seeing a photo on the front cover of a US hang gliding magazine. It’s also worth mentioning that on the front cover of 1974 May issue of ‘Flypaper’ there is a photo of someone flying prone with his legs on the rear wires. That's how the steering was achieved during those early days, as the ‘A’ frames were too narrow and pilot movement was very limited. After seeing Terry Haynes flying, Frank, who at the time was working for the Duracel Batteries company in Crawley, also informs me that he altered a safety harness, and converted to flying prone. If you look at photos of his wasp at the time, you will see that he also increased the size of the ‘A’ frame for the reason mentioned above.

By the end of 1974 along came the knee hanger harnesses and gliders with larger ‘A’ frames. The Hiway Company also came up with the idea of a plastic seat to provide rigid support of the upper thighs, and a stirrup. At first it looked a little weird but was very functional idea. It’s believed that Hiway also made the first stirrup harness which was a great success and lasted many years till the Cocoon harness’s came along.

Brian Harrison remembers that prone harnesses were being used, mainly by the Americans, Aussies and NZ flyers at Kossen in 1974. He also says that UP and other USA manufacturers were also using a knee-hanger system. At that time Brian was running Scot Kites, and designed the Proneweb, a knee-hanger harness with a semi-solid body 'web'. This was followed by Proneweb 2 which was a stirrup harness with two parallel alloy bars at the body sides to hold the shape. Both were manufactured for Scot Kites to a very high standard of quality by 'Troll', a mountaineering equipment company, and they went on to sell several hundred of each model, especially the ''2'', too other hang glider manufacturers in the UK, USA, and Europe.

Mark Woodhams believes quote “John James of Wasp used to fly prone lying down on a seated harness, but I think the first commercial prone harness was introduced by Hiway, which I did the original add for. A quick stroll through the early ‘Wings’ magazines should prove the case. We had all seen guys flying prone in the Groundskimmer magazines, so all the early designs were based on the knee-hanger type. Un-quote

Roly Lewis-Evans remembers Quote way back when I started at Birdman Ken Messenger supplied me with a brand new knee hanger harness supplied by Brian Harrison of Scot Kites. He was the guy that imported the Cirrus 5. He then took me out one evening to the local hill and chucked me off, the good thing with the knee hanger was the pulley system that rotated you straight into the prone position after takeoff. Soon had to get the hang of it (excuse the pun). Hiways harness although looking a bit soft were very comfortable with that plastic seat across your thighs. Un-quote.

The following is a selection of photos supplied by Don Liddard showing some of the different harness that started to appear during late1974 and 1975.

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