SAFA Skysailor Magazine

4 SKY SAILOR September | October 2023 Vale John Dickenson – 1934 to 2023 by Graeme Henderson, Stéphane Malbos, and Ken de Russy Paul Green is dedicating this edition’s ‘President’s Update’ to the memory of John Dickenson. John Dickenson, inventor of the modern hang glider, died on 5 July 2023. His funeral was held on 25 August in Mona Vale, NSW. John was the holder of the highest FAI award, the FAI Gold Air Medal. The sport of hang gliding really began in Aus- tralia in 1963 when John Dickenson invented the modern hang glider – robust, easy to transport and store. The magic of Dickenson’s device was the perfect coincidence of extreme simplicity, user-friendliness, and ability to copy. No other aircraft in history is as easy to build, fly and duplicate as the Dickenson wing. In 1969, Australian Bill Moyes foot-launched and ridge-soared a Dickenson hang glider, an event John Dickenson regarded as the begin- ning of modern hang gliding, the proof that his wing could soar. The same year, Bill Moyes and Bill Bennett, another Australian, took the Dickenson hang glider around the world. Moyes’ and Bennett’s flights and stunts helped to raise awareness