On 9 November 1961, flying SUMPAC (Southampton University's Man Powered Aircraft), Derek Piggott became the first person to make an officially authenticated take-off and flight in a man-powered aircraft. The longest flight was 650 yd (590 m); turns were attempted, with 80 degrees the best achieved and he made a total of 40 flights in SUMPAC.
Sadly, later in his career, he was not so lucky despite his skillful flying.In 1955 he was transferred from the mineral oil company to Hamburg in the aviation department. At an aerobatic demonstration in September of this year in Düsseldorf, Falderbaum had a serious accident with the Lo 100. At the end of each gliding demonstration, he flew at a height of about 10 m in the back flight, but at a safe distance from the spectators parallel past them, and then landed in front of them after a bend. During the back flight, one of the seat belts came off the central lock and hit his eye. Due to the shock reaction, the aircraft with the tailplane got ground contact. He still managed to bring the plane back up to speed; but due to the damage to the tail unit, the controllability was severely limited. In order not to get into the crowd, he tried to fly an evasive maneuver in the direction of free area. He touched the parked jet of an aerobatic squadron involved in the flight day and hit the ground with his glider. In this impact, he suffered life-threatening injuries, he was in a coma for 14 days. After several weeks of recovery, he was so prepared that he could start flying again. At most airfields in Germany, he was represented on flight days or special occasions with the Bü 133 and/or the Lo 100. At the first German Championships in aerobatics after the war in Handorf/ Dorbaum near Münster he succeeded again in 1960 to get the 1st place. However, he could only bear the associated physical strain by wearing a steel corset. The reason for this was the late consequences of the back injury during war flying.
A 'Scout' TGG?Not gliding but ultralight historical and so Australian that I post it here here for the antipodeans here...
. Helicopter aerobatic displays are ugly by nature IMO.