Philip Rossoni - Build and Pilot Your Own Walkalong Gliders

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Photo credits: dogfight video still in Chapter 7 by Slater Harrison; competition diagrams in Chapter 7 by David Aronstein.

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To Chris

Philip Rossoni (Belmont, Massachusetts) is a commercial glider pilot who has always been interested in finding ways to share the experience of piloting an aircraft with a wide audience. He has a Masters of Science degree in Physics from Northeastern University and was at Verizon Laboratories for 13 years as a member of the technical staff, designing light bulbs, electronics, and cellular telephone networks. Philip has also flown as a test pilot, evaluating prototype thermal detection devices for Air Borne Research Associates. He volunteers in the Exhibit Hall Interpretation Department at the Museum of Science, Boston, helping museum visitors learn to fly walkalong gliders. You can contact Phil at info@walkalongglider.info.

Author Philip Rossoni standing in front of a two-person Schweitzer 2-33 of the Greater Boston Soaring Club at the Sterling Airport (3B3). As a commercial glider pilot, he flew demonstration rides for people interested in joining the glider club.

My father, Paul MacCready, often spoke of the value of competition for promoting innovation. Among my brothers and me, one form of this competition was to see who could make the best paper airplane. Another of my fathers favorite topics was efficiency. In the world of paper airplanes, we saw efficiency in the flattest glide angle. Combining these two influences led us down a path of exploring a vast variety of paper airplanes and other flying creations built from foam, balsa, tissue paper, or anything else we could add nose weight to.

Our most prolific building era was in the mid-1970s. Modern hang gliding was just beginning to catch on, and our father procured bamboo poles and plastic sheeting to make a hang glider that could introduce his sons to flying. When we werent launching ourselves off the hills, we were making hang glidershaped paper airplanes.

As hang gliders evolved toward more efficient designs, so did our own creations. We began comparing the efficiency of our designs by gliding them across the living room and seeing how high they would hit the opposite wall. Proceeding without rules, any innovation was fair game. We realized that if the plane flew slowly enough, we had time to run to the far wall and provide a swoosh of air that would make the glider impact a little higher. We did this for a while, wearing ourselves out with a lot of running, until we discovered that we could walk along behind the glider with a board, and, using the same principle as a hang glider or bird soaring on a cliff, we could keep the plane at head height the entire way across the room. Thus was born the walkalong glider.

That was in 1975. The following year, our father began designing a human-powered plane, the Gossamer Condor, and this project gave us access to materials, space, talent, and time, during which we evolved our favorite walkalong glider shape: a swept flying wing with excessive washout (an upward bend of the trailing edge near the wing tip). For us, this design, with its extremely flat glide angle, was the epitome of high performance, and thus it gave us the greatest joy to fly.

In this book, Phil describes several variants on the walkalong glider concept that others have created in subsequent years. Each one highlights a different attribute that has its own appeal, from the grace of the flying wing, to the festive flipping of the tumblewing, to the fascinating but creepy reanimation of the butterfly. Like the Gossamer Condor, these creations are a unique opportunity for a human to power and control an airplane directly. I am sure this book will advance the trajectory of innovation and that more designs will follow.