Paresev
Encyclopedia
The Paresev (Paraglider Research Vehicle) was an experimental NASA
glider aircraft based upon the kite
-parachute
studies by NASA engineer Francis Rogallo
.
Between 1961 and 1965 the ability of the Rogallo wing
(also called "Parawing") to descend a payload such as the Gemini
space capsule safely from high altitude to ground was studied. The Paresev was a test vehicle used to learn how to control this parachute-wing for a safe landing at a normal airfield.
Publicity on the Paresev and the Ryan XV-8 "Flying Jeep"
aircraft inspired hobbyists to adapt Rogallo's flexible wing airfoil onto elementary hang gliders leading to the most successful hang glider configuration in history.
NASA experimented with the flexible Rogallo wing, which they renamed the Parawing, in order to evaluate it as a recovery system for the Gemini
space capsule
s and recovery of used Saturn rocket stage
s. Under a directive by Paul Bikle, NASA engineer Charles Richards
in 1961–1962 designed the collapsible four-tube Rogallo wing used in the Paresev. The Paresev series included wing configurations that were tightly foldable from the nose plate for easy transport, using initially a cloth sail and later one of Dacron.
The Parasev sail and cross-spreader beam format first flown on February 5, 1961 was seen 14 months later in the April 1963 maiden flight of the Mike Burns Skiplane, as he had closely studied NASA literature; Burns later helped make airworthy the ski-kite-glider of Australian John Dickenson that also embodied mechanics of the two-lobe four-beam wing designed earlier by Charles Richards
.
The Richards aluminum-tubed two-lobed Paresev wing configuration evolved to the sharp-nosed, low-sweep standard Rogallos of the 1960s and early 1970s, coupled with variations of the triangle control frame used in hang gliders as far back as the 1900s, if not earlier. Data developed by NASA in the late 1950s fed both the Charles Richards team and a different Ryan Aeronautical team that produced the Fleep. The Fleep used the four-beam two-lobed wing and influenced Barry Hill Palmer
, builder and pilot of the first hang glider based on the Rogallo wing. The rigid-tubed Paresev used a cantilevered cross-beam but did not use a kingpost.
Note that the "paraglider" involved in the early 1960s experiments is very different from the sport glider of today used by practitioners of paragliding
.
The basic vehicle was slightly more than 11 ft (3.4 m) high from the top of the paraglider's wing to the ground, while the length of the center keel was 15 ft (4.6 m). Total weight was about 600 lb (272.2 kg)
On August 24, 1962, seven weeks after the project was initiated, the team rolled out the Paresev 1.
Paresev flight log (NOTE – This log is incomplete*): Paresev Flight Log
for water landings were used instead. The Paresev and other flexible-wing projects such as the Ryan XV-8
stopped being funded by NASA on 1965. Although Rogallo wrote about, modeled, and spoke about recreational applications including hang gliding, NASA was not in the business of applying Rogallo's family of airfoils to personal aircraft such as kites, hang gliders, and powered light aircraft.
The Paresev was transferred to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum
located in Washington, D.C.
for display.
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
glider aircraft based upon the kite
Kite
A kite is a tethered aircraft. The necessary lift that makes the kite wing fly is generated when air flows over and under the kite's wing, producing low pressure above the wing and high pressure below it. This deflection also generates horizontal drag along the direction of the wind...
-parachute
Parachute
A parachute is a device used to slow the motion of an object through an atmosphere by creating drag, or in the case of ram-air parachutes, aerodynamic lift. Parachutes are usually made out of light, strong cloth, originally silk, now most commonly nylon...
studies by NASA engineer Francis Rogallo
Francis Rogallo
Francis Melvin Rogallo was an American aeronautical engineer inventor born in Sanger, California, U.S.A.; he is credited with the invention of the Rogallo wing, or "flexible wing", a precursor to the modern hang glider and paraglider...
.
Between 1961 and 1965 the ability of the Rogallo wing
Rogallo wing
The Rogallo wing is a flexible type of airfoil. In 1948, Gertrude Rogallo, and her husband Francis Rogallo, a NASA engineer, invented a self-inflating flexible wing they called the Parawing, also known after them as the "Rogallo Wing" and flexible wing...
(also called "Parawing") to descend a payload such as the Gemini
Project Gemini
Project Gemini was the second human spaceflight program of NASA, the civilian space agency of the United States government. Project Gemini was conducted between projects Mercury and Apollo, with ten manned flights occurring in 1965 and 1966....
space capsule safely from high altitude to ground was studied. The Paresev was a test vehicle used to learn how to control this parachute-wing for a safe landing at a normal airfield.
Publicity on the Paresev and the Ryan XV-8 "Flying Jeep"
Ryan XV-8
The V-8 designation was re-used by the U.S. armed forces to refer to the AV-8 Harrier. This was an unrelated project.The V-8 designation was re-used by the U.S. armed forces to refer to the AV-8 Harrier. This was an unrelated project....
aircraft inspired hobbyists to adapt Rogallo's flexible wing airfoil onto elementary hang gliders leading to the most successful hang glider configuration in history.
Development
Project Gemini
Project Gemini was the second human spaceflight program of NASA, the civilian space agency of the United States government. Project Gemini was conducted between projects Mercury and Apollo, with ten manned flights occurring in 1965 and 1966....
space capsule
Space capsule
A space capsule is an often manned spacecraft which has a simple shape for the main section, without any wings or other features to create lift during atmospheric reentry....
s and recovery of used Saturn rocket stage
Staged combustion cycle (rocket)
The staged combustion cycle, also called topping cycle or pre-burner cycle, is a thermodynamic cycle of bipropellant rocket engines. Some of the propellant is burned in a pre-burner and the resulting hot gas is used to power the engine's turbines and pumps...
s. Under a directive by Paul Bikle, NASA engineer Charles Richards
Charles Richards (NASA engineer)
Designer engineer Charles Richard used data from NASA research over Francis Rogallo's mechanical inventions to produce a wing configuration for manned hung-pilot kite-gliders that was to be found copied only with slight ornamental variation in a decade of hang gliders. Richards was of the Flight...
in 1961–1962 designed the collapsible four-tube Rogallo wing used in the Paresev. The Paresev series included wing configurations that were tightly foldable from the nose plate for easy transport, using initially a cloth sail and later one of Dacron.
The Parasev sail and cross-spreader beam format first flown on February 5, 1961 was seen 14 months later in the April 1963 maiden flight of the Mike Burns Skiplane, as he had closely studied NASA literature; Burns later helped make airworthy the ski-kite-glider of Australian John Dickenson that also embodied mechanics of the two-lobe four-beam wing designed earlier by Charles Richards
Charles Richards
Charles Richards may refer to:*Charles Brinckerhoff Richards , Engineer, designer of the Colt Single action army revolver, and Yale professor.*Charles Dow Richards , Canadian judge and New Brunswick politician*Charles L...
.
The Richards aluminum-tubed two-lobed Paresev wing configuration evolved to the sharp-nosed, low-sweep standard Rogallos of the 1960s and early 1970s, coupled with variations of the triangle control frame used in hang gliders as far back as the 1900s, if not earlier. Data developed by NASA in the late 1950s fed both the Charles Richards team and a different Ryan Aeronautical team that produced the Fleep. The Fleep used the four-beam two-lobed wing and influenced Barry Hill Palmer
Barry Hill Palmer
Barry Hill Palmer is an American aeronautical engineer , inventor, builder and pilot of the first hang glider based on the Rogallo wing or flexible wing...
, builder and pilot of the first hang glider based on the Rogallo wing. The rigid-tubed Paresev used a cantilevered cross-beam but did not use a kingpost.
Note that the "paraglider" involved in the early 1960s experiments is very different from the sport glider of today used by practitioners of paragliding
Paragliding
Paragliding is the recreational and competitive adventure sport of flying paragliders: lightweight, free-flying, foot-launched glider aircraft with no rigid primary structure...
.
Design and construction
The Paresev 1A and 1B were unpowered; the "fuselage" was an open framework fabricated of welded 4130 steel tubing, called a "space frame". The keel and leading edges of the wing were constructed of 2.5 inches (63.5 mm) aluminium tubing. The leading edge sweep angle was held constant at 50 degrees by a rigid spreader bar. Additional wing structure fabricated from steel tubing ensured structural integrity.The basic vehicle was slightly more than 11 ft (3.4 m) high from the top of the paraglider's wing to the ground, while the length of the center keel was 15 ft (4.6 m). Total weight was about 600 lb (272.2 kg)
On August 24, 1962, seven weeks after the project was initiated, the team rolled out the Paresev 1.
Control
The Paresev was controlled by moving the tensionally hung pilot's and fuselage's mass relative to the position of the wing. This mass-shifting was effected by tilting the wing from side to side and fore and aft by using a control stick in front of the pilot that descended from the wing above. Another version translated the same weight-shift control via cables. As the Paresev was towed in a kite mode, it usually rose from the ground at about 46 mi/h and had a maximum air speed of about 65 mi/h. The Paresev control pendulum weight-shift control system was presaged by a published patent, an early use of the hung pilot behind a cable-stayed triangle control bar in 1908 in the territory of Breslau, and then also by control wing of George Spratt in the 1920s.Variants
- Paresev 1 - first flight on January 25, 1962, crashed on March 14, 1962. Frame fitted with a linen membrane wing and the control stick coming from overhead in front of the pilot's seat.
- Paresev 1A - first flight May 18, 1962, last flight was on June 28, 1962. Used a rebuilt frame from the Paresev 1, but had a control stick and a Dacron membrane wing.
- Paresev 1B - first flight on July 27, 1962. Last flight on Feb 20, 1963.
- Paresev 1C - first flight March 4, 1963. Last flight on April 14, 1964. It had a modified frame with a half-scale version of an inflatable parawing.
Paresev flight log (NOTE – This log is incomplete*): Paresev Flight Log
* The Paresev vehicle was flown 341 times. Thompson made numerous ground-tow flights and claimed about 60 air-tow flights. Peterson claimed 228 flights (ground and air tows). Grissom made two flights. Champine made four flights. Kleuver made at least eight flights. It is unknown how many times Armstrong, Hetzel, and Slayton flew.
Operational history
The Paresev completed nearly 350 flights during a research program that ran from 1962 until 1964. Using the fully flexible parawing or the tube-stiffened paraglider of the Paresev 1A, 1B, 1C as an alternate to spacecraft recovery was deemed too unreliable upon unfolding so round parachutesParachutes
Parachutes is the debut album by English alternative rock band Coldplay, released by the record label Parlophone on 10 July 2000 in the United Kingdom. The album was produced by the band and British record producer Ken Nelson, excluding one track which was produced by Chris Allison...
for water landings were used instead. The Paresev and other flexible-wing projects such as the Ryan XV-8
Ryan XV-8
The V-8 designation was re-used by the U.S. armed forces to refer to the AV-8 Harrier. This was an unrelated project.The V-8 designation was re-used by the U.S. armed forces to refer to the AV-8 Harrier. This was an unrelated project....
stopped being funded by NASA on 1965. Although Rogallo wrote about, modeled, and spoke about recreational applications including hang gliding, NASA was not in the business of applying Rogallo's family of airfoils to personal aircraft such as kites, hang gliders, and powered light aircraft.
The Paresev was transferred to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum
National Air and Space Museum
The National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution holds the largest collection of historic aircraft and spacecraft in the world. It was established in 1976. Located in Washington, D.C., United States, it is a center for research into the history and science of aviation and...
located in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
for display.
Test pilots
- Milton Orville Thompson, NASA FRC
- Robert Apgar Champine, NASA LRC
- Neil ArmstrongNeil ArmstrongNeil Alden Armstrong is an American former astronaut, test pilot, aerospace engineer, university professor, United States Naval Aviator, and the first person to set foot upon the Moon....
, NASA FRC - Bruce A. Peterson, NASA FRC
- Charles Hetzel, North American Aviation
- Maj. Emil “Jack” Kluever, U.S. Army
- Donald K. "Deke" SlaytonDeke SlaytonDonald Kent Slayton , better known as Deke Slayton, was an American World War II pilot and later, one of the original NASA Mercury Seven astronauts....
, NASA MSC - Virgil I. "Gus" GrissomGus GrissomVirgil Ivan Grissom , , better known as Gus Grissom, was one of the original NASA Project Mercury astronauts and a United States Air Force pilot...
, NASA MSC
Tow Aircraft
- Piper PA-18 Super Cub (N-68P)
- Cessna O-1 Bird Dog (50-1675)
- Stearman (N69056)
- BoeingBoeingThe Boeing Company is an American multinational aerospace and defense corporation, founded in 1916 by William E. Boeing in Seattle, Washington. Boeing has expanded over the years, merging with McDonnell Douglas in 1997. Boeing Corporate headquarters has been in Chicago, Illinois since 2001...
HC-1A helicopter (58-5515)
Specifications
See also
- History of hang gliding
- Barry Hill PalmerBarry Hill PalmerBarry Hill Palmer is an American aeronautical engineer , inventor, builder and pilot of the first hang glider based on the Rogallo wing or flexible wing...
, 1960–62 - Charles Richards (NASA engineer)Charles Richards (NASA engineer)Designer engineer Charles Richard used data from NASA research over Francis Rogallo's mechanical inventions to produce a wing configuration for manned hung-pilot kite-gliders that was to be found copied only with slight ornamental variation in a decade of hang gliders. Richards was of the Flight...
- Ultralight trike
External links
- NASA Dryden Paresev Photo Collection
- FIRST re-entry glider - astronautix article
- Paresev photo collection by NASA: http://www.dfrc.nasa.gov/Gallery/Photo/Paresev/
- Link to videos of Paresev in flight: http://video.aol.com/video-detail/id/3412015278, http://www.dfrc.nasa.gov/Gallery/Movie/Paresev/HTML/EM-0022-03.html
- Paresev Flight Log, compiled by Peter W. Merlin, NASA History Department
- Flight movies of Paresev 1B
- EVALUATION OF TWO UNPOWERED MANNED PARAGLIDERS
- Hewes, Donald E.: Free-Flight Investigation of Radio-Controlled Models With Parawings. NASA TN D-927, 1961. TN D-927
- 1960, August NASA Technical note D-443 Preliminary investigation of a paraglider.
- http://www.members.lycos.nl/joujelle/nasa%20gliders.htm