Bill Bennett, 73; Helped Popularize Hang Gliding
Bill Bennett, an Australian who introduced the modern controllable hang glider to the United States in 1969 and helped popularize the fledgling sport through exhibitions and publicity stunts, has died. He was 73.
Bennett, nicknamed the “Birdman,” at one time owned Delta Wing Kites and Gliders in Van Nuys, believed to be the world’s largest hang glider manufacturing company. He died Oct. 7 in an ultralight accident at Lake Havasu City Airport in Arizona, said Margo Brown, his fiancee.
Bennett, who was being recertified in a powered hang glider, was taking off with instructor Drew Reeves when the glider lost power and dove into the ground, Brown said. Reeves received multiple injuries.
In the 1970s and ‘80s, Bennett’s company manufactured hang gliders and related equipment. He was instrumental in developing innovative hang glider concepts and designs.
“Even after he introduced the sport, he brought innovation after innovation that made the sport really what it is today,” said Richard Boone, Bennett’s chief designer from 1973 to 1980.
Boone said Bennett and his company pioneered the basic shape of modern gliders, along with emergency parachutes used by hang glider pilots, Mylar-coated sail cloth and improvements related to handling and performance.
Bennett also co-developed hang glider flight parks in Crestline in San Bernardino County, Torrey Pines in La Jolla and Lookout Mountain in Chattanooga, Tenn.
Boone remembered Bennett as “a charming, funny guy” who was both a promoter and an adventurer. “He would always be dreaming up a new stunt,” he said.
Josh Criss, a hang glider pilot who interviewed Bennett for a documentary on the sport, said that “probably his most significant role is he helped to make hang gliding a household word.”
“He got into some pretty serious accidents a few times,” said Criss. “He was really extremely dedicated and a fearless promoter of the sport.”
According to Jim Palmieri’s book, “Sky Adventures,” Bennett achieved a series of hang gliding firsts: flying higher than a mile, flying more than 200 miles while under tow, flying a motorized hang glider, and building and flying a hang glider trike (a propeller-driven craft). He also was the first to launch a hang glider by a hot-air balloon, thus setting the 10,000-foot world record.
One of Bennett’s best-known stunts in the United States occurred on July 4, 1969, when he glided around the Statue of Liberty.
Born in Korumburra, Australia, Bennett served in the Australian Navy and worked as a mechanic and boat builder. He also was a professional water-skier once ranked eighth in the world in barefoot skiing.
In the early 1960s, Bennett and fellow Australian water-skier Bill Moyes began experimenting with flat kites -- large diamond-shaped structures attached to a ski boat by a tow rope.
“You dangled from a crossbar 40 to 50 feet off the water. Boat speed would determine how high you go, and you couldn’t release from the boat. It just pulled you up and put you down,” Boone said.
Later, another Australian water-skier and an inventive electronics engineer, John Dickenson, read about a wing designed by NASA aeronautical engineer Francis Rogallo.
Rogallo’s foldable wing -- made of flexible material covered over three tubes spread in a fan shape -- was designed as a potential means of returning orbiting space capsules to Earth.
Thinking that Rogallo’s wing might be applicable to being pulled behind a ski boat, Dickenson went to work designing an A-frame, weight-shift control system that would allow for free flight. The system would become standard for hang gliders.
In 1966, Dickenson made news with his modified Rogallo wing for his two-hour towed “ski wing” flight on a river on the outskirts of Sydney. Criss said that both Bennett and Moyes heard about it and within a year had not only mastered flying the ski wing but also had begun modifying it and selling their own gliders. The two friendly rivals constantly tried outdoing each other by setting new records with their gliders.
“They were tireless promoters,” Criss said.
Bennett introduced the Dickenson-modified Rogallo wing to the United States in 1969 with exhibitions at Marine World in Redwood City and the National Water Skiing Championships in Berkeley, leading to offers to tour and give exhibitions across the country.
“Everyone was so amazed by it,” he told The Times in 1990. “So many people wanted to do it.”
At the dedication of the transplanted London Bridge at Lake Havasu, Ariz., in 1971, Bennett reached a new altitude best of 2,960 feet after towing up and releasing -- a feat that earned him and the sport of hang gliding recognition in the Guinness World Records book.
In a 1972 stunt for the “Thrill Seekers” television show, Bennett made the world’s highest and longest unassisted free flight, foot-launching off the ridge of Dante’s View in Death Valley. He spent 11 minutes and 47 seconds aloft and traveled 6.2 miles to the valley floor, 5,757 feet below.
Bennett appeared on TV’s “What’s My Line” and “Secrets of the World” and was the hang gliding stunt double for actor Roger Moore in the 1973 James Bond movie “Live and Let Die.”
Bennett was inducted into the Soaring Hall of Fame, NASA’s Space and Technology Hall of Fame and the Francis Rogallo Hall of Fame. A number of hang gliders produced by his company are on display at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum.
Bennett never told Brown why he loved hang gliding, but as someone who has flown tandem in a hang glider, she said she thought she knew how he felt.
“It’s probably the purest way of flying,” she said, “the freedom and the silence of the wind in your face -- flying with the eagles; and he did.”
In addition to Brown, Bennett is survived by sons Gary and Glenn of Australia; daughters Michelle Martin and Nicole McKinney, both of Lake Havasu; stepson Dennis Firestone of Loma Linda, Calif.; brother Raymond and sister Cheryle Winkler, both of Australia; seven grandchildren; and one great-granddaughter.
The family requests that donations be made to the Rogallo Foundation Museum Fund, P.O. Box 1839, Nags Head, NC 27959.