Francis

A critique of the interview. (Grafton, Australia)

http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=-6019950879174672842

graeme henderson  <flyingfree> writes:

While there are some good things to be said about this video, it does have some problems.

John Dickenson had a brain freeze and said that he contacted Dr.  Rogallo.  John was under pressure on that day.  He lost his job on that day,and so was not 100% on the ball.  In fact, Dr Rogallo initiated the contact between the two of them, after being told by Robin Bishop of John's achievements.

Bill claims that all the previous pilots had crashed, and that John had been taking people to Hospital when Bill flew.  Not so.  Many people flew adequately before Bill.

On the day of Bill's first flight, John Dickenson demonstrated the aircraft first.  John and Mike were giving flights to members of a Water Ski Club.  Bill had to wait until all of the Club members had had their fill of flying before he was allowed to fly.

One man re-broke his leg.  He had broken it a short time earlier in a road accident and it hadn't healed.  He should not have been on water skis.  It broke due to the shock from the skis, not from a crash.

Neither John Dickenson nor Mike Burns took anyone to Hospital.  John Dickenson was the observer on the boat for Bill's first flight.

Bill also says that John got back from the hospital and realized that Bill had flown the glider and that John rushed up to Bill and asked him how it went.  Bill says, "Just how you said it would!" John says "Really!".  This is hard to explain, as it has no basis in reality.

Bill Moyes claims to have been the first to fly the wing, in his statement that, "That's when I realized that I was the Bunny!" This is rubbish.

Starting with Rod Fuller and then John, many people had flown the glider before Bill Moyes.  Bill first flew in March, 1967, three and a half years after the first flight.

The glider he flew was built by Aerostructures.  John had sold at least seven gliders before Aerostructures became involved.  Bill's inference that he was in anyway a test pilot for this machine is pure dreaming.  The aircraft had been refined and developed a great deal and Aerostructures were building the gliders to a very high standard, Aircraft quality indeed.

In the unedited interview, Bill actually claims that prior to him everyone had flown the Glider as a kite, in a stable stall!  No one had ever flown it as a wing!  This is untrue, and actually impossible I think.  It seems that this is how and when it changed from a Kite into a hang glider in Bill's mind.

Bill claims to have flown eight miles on his first flight, and released when he encountered power lines across the river!

Mike Burns, " Must have been another flight."

John Dickenson, " Ha.  That happened to me a few weeks earlier when I was doing the record flight."

Bill implies that this action to avoid these mythical power lines was the first release and free glide in a Dickenson Wing, but that is so wrong.  Release and landings were common by 1964.  Witnesses abound to this fact.

That aside it is not a bad video.  Tthe uncut version is more interesting though.  This one does provide some explanation to how John Dickenson's role in Hang Gliding has been obscured for so long.

Certainly one senses from his correspondence to John that Dr.  Rogallo felt that John was still not getting the recognition he deserved from this video.  He noted Bill Bennett had acknowledged John and that Bill Moyes would most likely receive that magazine.  Dr.  Rogallo is a very intelligent man.



For more of an understanding on why the world has been confused about who invented the modern hang glider, I recommend reading; http://www.nasm.si.edu/research/aero/aircraft/delta_wing_162.htm  and http://www.moyes.com.au/articledetail.asp?ID=63&Cat=Interest

Discuss Francis at the Oz Report forum