[dhmartens]

Is this the first inflatable hang glider?

[JoeF]

It is not clear if any of the team did a micro hang glide with the wing or not. However, even it so, such would not have been the first for an inflatable hang glider. Discovery on such "first" would need also to distinguish between ram-air inflation and positive inflation of air-holding bladders and aerodynamically inflated single-membrane wings. NASA had inflated air beams for some hang gliders earlier than the tensairty-main-spar wing shown in the video.
E.g.:

[Bob Kuczewski]

I was reading up on spark gap radios (following a thread of inquiry sparked by recent news concerning Tesla's new production plant) when I came across this quote in Wikipedia:

Experiments by a number of inventors had shown that electrical disturbances could be transmitted short distances through the air. However most of these systems worked not by radio waves but by electrostatic induction or electromagnetic induction, which had too short a range to be practical. In 1866 Mahlon Loomis claimed to have transmitted an electrical signal through the atmosphere between two 600 foot wires held aloft by kites on mountaintops 14 miles apart.

Of course we all know the famous story of Ben Franklin's experiments involving kites and electricity, but I hadn't known of kites being involved in the first long distance electromagnetic communications.

I looked for a kite-related topic to share this, and this one seemed the best. Thanks to Doug and Joe from 2015.