![]() ![]() Once airborne, he or she sat in a small swing seat, feet propped on the back of the wing leading edge tube to streamline her profile and reduce drag. To launch the "Icarus," the pilot ran with the wing downhill and into the wind. To mount the aircraft, a pilot stood in an opening built into the center of the lower wing and supported himself and wing by grasping two sturdy pieces of the airframe tubing that passed close on either side of his chest. On the upper left and lower right wingtips, the Kiceniuks placed sunburst logos and the word 'Icarus' written with Greek letters. Lightweight aluminum tubing and Styrofoam ribs covered with clear plastic formed the "Icarus" airframe. It was a rigid-wing, tailless biplane and Taras named it "Icarus" after the Greek legend of a father and son who fashioned wings made of feathers and wax. The new hang glider was radically different from nearly every other hang glider flying at the time. Late in 1971, the Kiceniuk men realized that they could improve significantly on the Rogallo wing by moving to a rigid-wing configuration. Plans to build "Batso" sold well enough to finance young Taras' engineering degree at Caltech. He also flew this aircraft at one of the first hang glider meets to attract a sizable number of pilots held on May 23, 1971. This unusual covering inspired the name "Batso." Young Taras gliding "Batso" down the hills around Palomar Mountain northeast of San Diego became a common sight. An early bamboo-and-plastic Rogallo wing inspired their first design but the Kiceniuk version used an improved wing covered with black plastic. Father and son became very involved in the sport as it blossomed and became popular in Southern California. His father, Taras, Sr., worked as an administrator at the Mount Palomar Observatory and he had taught at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). In 1971, Taras Kiceniuk, Jr., was still in high school when he built his first hang glider. Most conventional sailplanes of that day equipped with fuselage and tail had glide ratios of about 25:1. A standard, early Rogallo could glide one meter (3 ft 4 in) forward for every 30.5 cm (1 ft) of altitude lost, a glide ratio of about 3:1. Critics called the Rogallo wing little more than a parachute because it did not produce large amounts of lift and the wing was not very maneuverable. Some people made them from bamboo poles and plastic sheeting from local hardware stores. The Rogallo hang glider was simple and inexpensive to build and fly. Rather, the wind filled the Dacron sail and held it open. In the earliest Rogallo hang gliders, there were no wing spars or ribs to spread and hold the wing to generate lift. Smaller tubes and wires added rigidity and support the assembly. A person building the glider stretched a 'sail,' usually made of cheap plastic sheet but later, Dacron fabric, between the three tubes like the webbing on a duck's foot. In its early, basic, form Rogallo's wing consisted of three aluminum tubes, a central keel and two leading edges, all tied together at one end. These accessories equip conventional aircraft and make them many times heavier and more complex to construct and fly than a Rogallo. It is a flying wing with no fuselage and no tail, ailerons, flaps, or other devices to control direction of flight and altitude. Disappointing tests nixed this idea but not before it had migrated to creative minds outside the space agency who saw the potential to fly on very inexpensive wings.Ī Rogallo wing is one of the simplest flying devices ever created. NASA hoped to use Rogallo's wings to recover spacecraft. Francis Rogallo designed this unique wing for his employer, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The Rogallo wing stirred the upsurge in the popularity of hang gliding that began in the late 1960s. Like the flexible wing, Rogallo-type hang gliders, one person could carry Kiceniuk's Icarus but she could fly it in more demanding conditions, such as weak lift or turbulence, than she could fly a Rogallo glider. Taras Kiceniuk, Jr., designed this revolutionary tailless, rigid-wing, hang glider. It was a rigid-wing, tailless biplane and young Taras named it "Icarus" after the Greek legend of a father and son who fashioned wings made of feathers and wax. Late in 1971, Taras and his father, Taras, Sr., realized that they could improve significantly on the Rogallo wing by moving to a rigid-wing configuration. Like the flexible wing, Rogallo-type hang gliders that preceeded it, one person could carry Kiceniuk's Icarus but she could fly it in more demanding conditions, such as weak lift or turbulence, than she could fly a Rogallo glider. ![]()
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