If you are a pilot standing on the ground when the wind blows free and the clouds drift like wayward ships of folly, you long to be aloft. But acquiring the altitude to enjoy all that beckoning sky requires some effort. We can either drive ourselves and our equipment up a suitable mountain or we can tow to altitude. Both endeavors have some advantages and disadvantages, but one thing is certain: towing aloft is the only choice in flat areas, which includes large percentages of most countries.
Today, the practice of towing hang gliders and paragliders is a way to teach, get abundant airtime and perform for public shows. Towing for free flight has evolved into a relatively safe pastime which can be pursued by all ages and physical types. Yet this successful state of affairs is somewhat recent and we’d like to tell you how it came about
The history of towing reflects the history of aviation itself, for as we shall see, towing has always been closely associated with the development of human-carrying aircraft. This process continues today with the perfection of our form of towing, but let’s start at the beginning.
Dreamers and designers throughout history have always recognized the need for some son of propulsion on aircraft Many, including Leonardo Da Vinci, thought was the way to go, especially since all observable flying birds, bats, insects, employed this method. But Da Vinci later came around to the realization that the simplest form of flight is gliding and a hill will suffice to allow a glider to get airborne But at the same time some experimenters considered towing as the best means to apply propulsion. The horse was the logical choice for a tow vehicle for it was about the only choice.
By 1830, Sir George Cayley had managed to tow his reluctant servant aloft on a very promising glider with a team of horses. But aviation proceeded in fits and starts because it had a way of eliminating its less fortunate or cautious pioneers.
It was in the late 1800s before more aviation success was achieved by the likes of Lillienthal, Montgome1Y, Hargreaves, Pilcher, Chanute and others. Some of these innovators towed their craft, but it was the Wright brothers who developed towing to quite a high level as they tested their early gliders. Once they succeeded in their development of powered flight, towing disappeared for almost twenty years
The Germans reinvented gliding craft in the 1920s, These primary sailplanes didn’t fly any better than the fixed wing hang gliders of today. But because they benefited from the advancement of aircraft control at that time, they were very readily a site towed, in southern Germany. It was here than ridge soaring first took place.
Eventually, methods for winch towing, car towing and aerotowing by an airplane were devised and there matters remained until the rebirth of hang gliding in the mid-1960s, The history of hang gliding is told in detail elsewhere but we note that the development of towing hang gliders paralleled that of hang gliding itself.
The first towing of the type used for hang gliders occurred with flat kites. These kites were towed behind boats. They were prone to lockouts and couldn’t be released from the line for they were unstable without the tow force, But as soon as the Rogallo wing with its triangular shape and much greater stability was tried, the potential for towing took off. An Australian John Dickenson designed the control bar and two of his countrymen, Bill Moyes and Bill Bennett popularized towing by trying to outdo each other in towing height on a nearly weekly basis. Both Bills toured the world in the late ’60s, popularizing hang gliding and towing