The 1st British hang glider described as a Rogallo wing was constructed in 1971 by Geoff McBroom, Les Hockings, Steve Stanwick, Howard Holdie and Tony Gillette, with balloonist Don Cameron making the sail. The glider was designed by Geoff McBroom, who used to work for British Airospace at Bristol after he found plans for a glider in information available from Nasa, it had a glide angle of around 3:1. It’s more than likely that the plans he saw were what have been come known as the “Kilbo plans” drawn by Dave Kilborne, which were distributed free in the “Low and Slow” magazine #6 in mid 1971, and became the starting point for all other plans. Those plans were derived from the Bennett ski kite which Bill Bennett introduced to Kilborne in 1969, which of course was a copy of an Aerostructures (Dickenson Licensed Product) Wing. The Kilbo Plans say "Hang Glider Plan Adapted from N.A.S.A. This information links McBroom’s hang glider back, via Bill Bennett, to John Dickenson and the Dickenson Wing in Australia.
Ken Messenger a keen sports man, who was into motor bike and car racing. In the early 70's he was doing a lot of waterskiing and one of his friends used to fly what was then called a flat kite behind a boat about 10/15' of the water. Bill Bennet came to the lake and flew his kite to 5/600', released and landed on the side of the lake. Ken was amazed and asked him if it could be done from a hill. Result was that Ken started importing Bennett gliders from the USA, Unfortunately some of them arrived minus a few parts that Ken had to manufacture and install himself. Overnight Ken started producing his own hang gliders, calling his company Birdman Sports. At that time also working for the company was Dave Raymond and David Walling an ex European tow kitting champion. Ken may well have been the first person to fly a hang glider in the UK and came a close second to Geoff Mcbroom as a manufacturer. The meet up of Ken and Bill Bennett also links Kens hang gliders back to The Dickenson Wing in Australia
Around the same time Len Gabriels formed the “Skyhook” company, the Haynes brothers (Robin and Terry) formed “Wasp” and Gerry Breen “Custom Kites”. All brought out their own design hang gliders.
(I’m interested to hear from anybody as to what Len, the Haynes Brothers and Gerry Brren based their hang gliders on???)
1972
Geoff McBroom was the first to claim a flight duration record of seven and half minutes.
At that time McBroom was producing the Arion, Birdman the Grasshopper and Hawk, while Wasp was producing the Wasp229, Skyhook the Skyhook3, Gerry Breen the Custom Kite and Hiway the 220, 240, 260.
Most of their first generation hang gliders only had a max of 3.5:1 L/D.
1973
11th November saw the British endurance record reach 25 minutes 46 seconds by Len Gabriels flying a Skyhook.
1974
Saw the introduction of a King post on the top of the wing by all manufacturers.In January Ken Messenger flew for over one hour.
In October Brian Woods raised the bar and flew for over eight and a half hours.
Later the endurance record for soaring went up to about ten hours and from then on flights of longer duration were being recorded until the record was finally abandoned, because of improvements to glider performance and of the fatigue factor to the pilots.
1975
In May Geoff McBroom published details of an anti-luffing system which in essence was the application of luff lines from the kingpost to points near the trailing edge of the sail of a standard Rogallo. Only later was this idea taken up.
Most manufacturers introduced battens to the wing
McBroom brought out the Cobra.
Birdman brought out the Firebird.
Skyhook the Skyhook3.
Wasp the 229b3.
McBroom the Argus.
During the annual Mere Hang Gliding Championship, the Wills brothers Chris and Bob introduced their Wills Wing Swallowtail. They won almost every competition that year and Geoff McBroom was later to imported the Swallowtail, although compared to English hang gliders the price was a little beyond most of the early pioneer flyers.
1976
Hiway brought out with the Cloudbase
By the end of 1976 the L/d had been lifted to around 6 to 1.
1977
Birdman produced the Moonraker 77.
Bob Bailey flies 24 miles from Carlton Bank to near Swinton.
24th April Gerry Breen flies 13 miles from Tredegar to Newport.
15th May Nigel Milnes flies 22 miles and makes height gain of 6,00ft from Swinyard Hill in the Malverns to Castle Farm, Madley.
1978
Geoff McBroom drops out of the manufactures race, and closed down.
Hiway produced the Scorpion and later the Super Scorpion
Birdman the Moonraker 88
Chargus the Midas
Skyhook the Sunspot
Flexiform the Vector.
1979
12th May Bob Bailey flies 50 miles from Littondale to Hartlepool.
17th May P.Hargreaves flies Open Distance of 110.2Kms from Kettlewell, Yorkshire. (National, Local record)
1980
25th August Robert Calvert flies distance of 127.61Kms. (National, Local record)