[JoeF]

This topic aims to have some influence over hang glider design by examining umbrella design.
Close study of umbrella design with an eye for hang glider design may profit hang glider designers. So, this topic thread invites the study of umbrella design throughout history.
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Where to start?
Maybe here: In our hang gliding we see an increase in the use of white sailcloth to address the UV damage of wing textiles. It is keen that white also is seen well. And that white reflects the sun while giving shade to some pilots and friends on the LZ; sitting beneath a parked hang glider indeed has then the hang glider be a shade giver, i.e., an umbrella blocking the sun from direct hits on the people and things beneath the HG. That is, hang glider have been used as umbrellas. This is all mentioned to tease the topic. Perhaps first hang gliders were first used as umbrellas; the umbrellas may have been used to jump from a high point in an environment. As the umbrellas were modified parachutes and governable gliding umbrellas spotted the world's scene.
... so, careful look at umbrella designs just may offer some details or nuances that may further affect hang glider designing. Folding umbrellas! (folding hang gliders). Etc. Have fun.
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Perhaps a next random step: I present:
Ben Reese's umbrella (perhaps a different guy than the Ben who shows in another HG forum; I have inquired and hope to get a confirmation of the case):
https://www.google.com/patents/US6305394

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No little influence over hang gliding's history:

Notice in the classic Mary Poppin's scene, the umbrella is center. And it is no accident that the "kite" and "umbrella" are so very close in the movie; notice Julie clutching the umbrella during the kite scene. Umbrellas have affected kites; both have affected hang gliding. And yet more may be in the future for hang gliding from the umbrella world.

Related: Extreme athlete explores: http://www.odditycentral.com/videos/extreme-athlete-attempts-mary-poppins-inspired-umbrella-skydive.html

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So, reach for umbrella design understanding and mastery to bless hang gliding????





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There are many directions that may be followed in this topic.
One direction is the using of trashed patio umbrellas or rain umbrellas to make model or even full-sized hang gliders.
Teasing that direction: http://www.neatorama.com/2013/09/30/How-to-Turn-an-Umbrella-into-Batmans-Hang-Glider/
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[JoeF]

The patent space over umbrellas is rich in image, mechanical tactics, and inspiring text. This topic thread invites exploring the patent space as one of the spaces to study umbrellas for hang gliders' sake. [[This topic thread may well affect the progress in the U.S. Hawks forum topic: The 5 ft-packed-HG Movement, which see also. Also, this topic thread may affect what is unfolding in the topic: Should we try a different way? Designwise.... ]]

Here is one from 1910 that could be studied:
https://www.google.com/patents/US974811
John W. Olsson, New York
Richard F. Greenfield, New Jersey
Filed June 1, 1910
Folding Umbrella

[JoeF]

The planform of an umbrella may be circular, triangular, square, pentagonal, hexagonal, heptagonal, octagonal, nonagonal, decagonal, etc. Notice that plane filling for the regular n-gons permits only triangle, square, or hexagon to fill the plane. Hence using regular octagons ever leaves gaps. So, some umbrellas can fill a plaza without gaps when people or planning places the 3- or 4- or 6- sided umbrellas. Regular 4 sided is square, a type of quadrilateral.

Thinking hang glider wings, one may have one of the n-gons and be done with the matter.
Or two adjacent same-gons for two halves of a main full wing. One may have spanwise three -gons with say three squares adjacent to each other, or three hexagons adjacent to each other, or three octagons adjacent or three decagons adjacent to each other; notice: 4, 6, 8, 10, ... for good fit adjacency for three of kind. The even n-gons may mix and match in a spanwise manner at one-line. More complex gatherings of umbrella or n-gon planforms may make up a wing for a hang glider.
Irregular triangle, irregular quadrilateral, etc. have found their ways into hang glider planforms. Collapsible umbrellaize the wing?

[JoeF]

My inquiry as to the author of the patent on the umbrella that I chose for introducing the topic brought fruit. Yes, it is our HG's community Ben Reese of northern California who filed the patent. Good! Nice tie to the topic. Ben has a colorful life going. In his sixth decade of life he his full of energy yet. Occasionally he shows at HG site Fort Funston and attends some of the club's meeting. His umbrella prototype was aided by two different aviation centers of influence, one being Wills Wing people, and the other connected somehow with the Swift foot-launch sailplane, he noted. It will be interesting to discover if he surfaced any novelty in his patent; we will aim to discern such matter in time, pending deeper study; I do not know yet his claims for novelty.
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