In the Good Old Days of Hang Gliding

Bill Liscomb, a hang gliding pioneer with 23 years of experience and film maker will be showing his documentary, Big Blue Sky, at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington DC. He’ll also share his insight and stories surrounding the birth and growth of hang gliding along the California Pacific coast starting in the 1970s.

Hang gliding dates back to the Greek story of Icarus and his father Daedalus who escaped from Crete using wings made from wax and feathers.  In the story, Icarus, against his father’s instructions, flies too close to the sun and plummets to his death in the sea when the sun’s heat melts the wax holding his wings together.

From 800 AD until the mid-1800s, man unsuccessfully attempted to glide on the air currents using wings made from feathers, fabric, wood and other materials.  But not until the 1860s did heaver-than-air gliding become a reality.

Polish sculptor and carpenter Jan Wnęk covered a wooden frame in varnished linen and after several test flights, made several reported flights of close to a mile from the top of 300 foot church bell tower located on a hill.

Over the next hundred years, as technology and aeronautical engineering and knowledge grew, the design of hang gliders improved, and by the 1970s, it had grown to become one of the first extreme sports in the US.

Big Blue Sky includes never seen before vintage film clips and photographs of the sport’s evolution and growth.  Five years in the making, Liscomb uses mostly his personal collection of Super8 movies and other footage, plus photographs, many taken by his mother, a noted commercial hang gliding photographer to create the documentary.

The story explains how glider designs were brought to California from Australia and the sport evolved to have national championships and rapid technology developments to improve safety and performance.

The documentary film is full of twists and turns, and not just of hang glider pilots going through their stunts, but of some of the sport’s tragedies as well.

The GE Aviation Lecture Series – Big Blue Sky
National Air and Space Museum
IMAX Theater
Seventh Street and Independence Ave., NW
Washington DC  (map it)

Dates & Times – Thursday, April 22, 2010 – 7:00 p.m.  Museum hours – Daily 10:00 a.m. – 5:30 p.m. with extended summer hours until 7:30 p.m. from March 29 until  September 5.

Tickets – Museum admission and movie and lecture are free.  Free movie & lecture advanced tickets are available online.

Nearest Metro Subway Station – L’Enfant Plaza – Blue, Orange, Yellow and Green lines and Smithsonian – Blue and Orange lines, then a 3-4-block walk from either, or use the DC Circulator bus.

Parking – Limited metered street parking and area paid garage parking is available.

Images – Fight Hill,  Glider from Flickr