We are fortunate in having one of the largest private collections of old hang gliders in the UK. The collection started when Simon felt the need to track down an early Rogallo wing, and wrote reports of the events that led up to a successful flight. Those reports appeared in the Free Flyer magazines that were edited by Harriet Pottinger in the 1990's. As a result, people started offering him their old wings, and the collection has been growing ever since!
This collection of vintage hang gliders marks our deep respect for those pioneers who designed and flew the earliest hang gliders, in the days when everything was done By Guess and By God. Before computer design techniques and test rigs came into play a much greater emphasis was, necessarily, put on trial and error. Of course, error was sometimes very costly, and we salute those who risked all to develop our sport.
This is the full list of gliders at present in the collection. They are shown in approximate order of their date of manufacture, but the stated dates are often nothing more than educated guesses. If you know better, please tell us where we have gone wrong!
This section of the web site is being developed at the moment, so look out for an increasing number of exhibits in the coming days:-
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1973. Well used. The original owner was Dennis Irving, who bought the wing when studying at University in the States, and imported it when he came home. Sadly, he later died in an accident when converting to a rigid wing in 1976. The glider was donated by his friend Rupert Brown, who had stored the wing in his barn for 25 years. It was, very briefly, "flown" by Simon from a small site in Devon. Simon is a chicken, of course, but he reported that there was no feedback in pitch to let him know what was going on, and declined the suggestion that he should carry it to the top of the hill to get some altitude.
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| 1975. Quite well used, but in reasonable condition. This glider has a much more substantial airframe than the Flexi-flyer, and as such is likely to get flown at some point in the future. It does have a bent A-frame, but in those days all used gliders had bent A-frames! This Arion was donated during a Balloon Flight with Rob Schwab's Westcountry Ballooning. Hang Gliding was mentioned during the day, and Rob's customer asked if he knew anyone who would like an old glider. Thanks Rob! |
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| 1975. Excellent condition. This was the glider that started our collection. Brian Johnson saw it advertised in a local paper in Jersey, and following a year of delicate negotiations he and Simon managed to buy it! It remains the most expensive glider in the collection, being the only one that wasn't willingly donated. It is in superb condition, and was flown by Simon from the 800 foot hill at Bossington, soaring effortlessly for about 20 minutes. The event was reported in Free Flyer at the time, and generated much interest. Simon, chicken as usual, was disconcerted by the fact that the sail would sometimes stop flapping and would emit a single loud "Crack". So he landed to check the sail attachment at the tips (the leading edges are only retained by pinching a webbing strip between the tube and a push-fit plastic bung!). Everything was fine, but he didn't take off again. |
| 1978, almost as new condition - Superb! Simon owned an all-white Midas E in 1977. It wasn't really strong enough to put up with his poor landings.... |
| 1979? This glider is incomplete, and has suffered from corrosion to steel components. Could probably be made airworthy again. |
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| 1979. Just look at the aspect ratio of the Cyclone! This particular glider was built for Simon when he was a dealer for Chargus. He flew it as his own for a few months, before selling it on to Graham Rock. Graham used it to good effect for several years, even taking a Canadian tourist up dual on one occasion! This may seem a strange thing to do with a Cyclone, but all is explained by the fact that she was rather attractive. Graham bought other gliders, and despite many offers from Simon to buy the Cyclone back, he eventually preferred to loan it to him on the condition that it would be looked after. We thus regard this lovely glider as still belonging to Graham. It is in very good condition, and not so long ago Simon flew it on a very soarable day at Selworthy. He found he could get up with most of the modern gliders that were flying that day, and the handling felt quite similar to his Moyes CSX. He couldn't penetrate very well, however, and the inefficiency in turns was rather noticeable. Even so, it was a very pleasant flight! |
Hiway Super Scorpion Mk 10G |  |
| This glider was probably built in 1982, and is in remarkably good condition - as you might expect of something that used to belong to the Royal Engineers. It sports the Union Jack keel which Hiway introduced for British Team Pilots at the America's Cup events. We have only rigged it and taken a couple of pictures, and although it looks a bit on the large side, it is certainly a candidate for a test flight when the weather is right. |
| 1981. Almost brand new - probably never flown |
| 1981, Large size. Almost complete and quite tidy. We intend to make up the missing parts and fly this glider, not least because Martyn has always wanted one! |
| 16.6.07. Thanks to the generosity of Justin and David Parsons we have just taken delivery of David's old UP Comet. This is a particularly significant glider for Simon, because his switch from Chargus to Airwave resulted in the hang glider business becoming a viable alternative to a "proper" job. Simon Murphy's Flying Circus sold many hundreds of Airwave gliders, and it was the UP Comet, built under licence by Airwave on the Isle of Wight, which started the ball rolling. This glider really brings back some memories! |
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22.7.07: Simon flew this glider at Beer Head. Just over an hour cruising down to Ladram Bay and back (past the 2-piece Napoli) reminded him of the many virtues of the Kiss, which was an absolutely incredible glider. Developed when the Airwave team was at its strongest, with Rory Carter and Graham Deegan at the helm and John Pendry, Bruce Goldsmith and Robbie Whittal all involved, the Kiss was announced just before the '88 European Championships. The name was laughed at, but the glider took something like six of the first seven places. The laughing stopped.
This particular glider came to us without a batten profile and had a slight left hand turn. It felt as though the battens needed a tweak, and when we managed to borrow a batten plan we found that they were absolutely miles out! Not unusual, but very interesting....
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Brian Johnson
Harriet Pottinger
Rob Schwab
Paul Farley
Joint Services Hang Gliding
Jason Board (British Hang Gliding Museum)
Graham Rock
Steve Pionk
Justin and David Parsons
....and James Fuller for some much-needed storage space!
if you have a glider which you feel we might appreciate, please don't hesitate to contact Simon.
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