The Flying With Volmer Historical Society
Volmer Jensen built the first controlled hang glider and some other stuff..
Volmer Jensen's Designs and Builds in Chronological Order with additional tidbits and unsubstantiated rumors.
About Flying With Volmer
Our Mission
Our Collection
Our Collection
Research and post information on Volmer Jensen, his designs and builds, and foster communication with like minded scroungers, pirates and
interested parties.
Our Collection
Our Collection
Our Collection
It's all we can find.
Gripes, comments , links, submissions, suggestions, and donations greatfully accepted.
Membership
Our Collection
Membership
The Flying With Volmer
Historical Society
So far it's me and Choppergirl.
She's restoring a VJ-24w "Sun Fun"and has some other interesting hobbies.
http://air-war.org/choppergirl.shtml
I think she's bringing some of her friends...
The secret hand shake is
no hand shake.
You're in.
Excerpt from "Manbirds : Hang Gliders & Hang Gliding"
by Maralys Wills, 1981 : Prentice-Hall
What a singular man is Volmer Jensen!
With quiet pride he points to his latest project, the VJ-24 Sunfun, stretched across the yard in back of his house. It is another of his fixed-wing hang gliders, with rudder, ailerons, and elevator. But it is only the last of many accomplishments. For without a college education Volmer Jensen has built—with his two hands—almost every kind of small flying machine except a jet.
With help from his good friend Irv Culver (a Lockheed aerodynamicist), Volmer Jensen builds amphibians, sailplanes, and fixed-wing hang gliders; sells kits and plans—all from what may be the world’s smallest aircraft-design center.
Working in a shop the size of a two-car garage (it probably was a two-car garage), with a small backyard office a few steps away, he forges his links to the flying world right in the heart of residential Glendale, California. From the street he is Volmer Jensen, unobtrusive resident on a quiet tree-lined avenue.
In the back he is pilot, designer, adventurer, famous innovator. A different sort of man might not get away with it. For Volmer Jensen it all fits perfectly.
Volmer !
Volmer S.Jensen flying his VJ-11. The first hang glider with 3 dimensional controls. 1940
Volmer S. Jensen Timeline
Born: Volmer Sofes Jensen Milwaukee WI September 29 1909
Died: January 13 1998, at age 88
Parents: Andrew P Jensen and Emilie Sophie Soren
Spouse: Peggy Esther Hawley
Volmer moved to Seattle as a teenager.
Inspired by designs in Popular Mechanics and Boy Mechanic magazines,
Jensen began to design and build sailplanes and built his first hang glider,
1920's Seattle WA
1925 VJ-1
Chanute-type biplane glider.
Volmer built his first weight-shift biplane glider from plans found in The Boy Mechanic, 4 volumes published by Mechanics Illustrated Magazine between 1913 and 1925.
This is the first print in Book One of the series published in 1913.
How to Make a Glider
By Carl Bates page 171
Read the entire book here:
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/12655/12655-pdf.pdf
Book 2, from 1915, features several kite and glider designs.
Read the entire book here:
https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/44585/pg44585-images.html
1926 VJ-2 Chanute-type biplane glider from plans published in The Boy Mechanic Magazine (1926)
1927 VJ-3
Glider with aerodynamic controls, an enclosed cockpit and a wheeled landing gear (1927)
Based on the MIT glider Eddie Allen had taken to Europe in the mid-20s to compete against the Germans
Photo: Allen AES-1 glider in flight, ca. 1922
Timeframe:
Charles Lindbergh on May 20–21, 1927, flew his custom-built, single-engine, single-seat, high-wing monoplane on the first solo nonstop transatlantic flight from Long Island, New York, to Paris, France
The project manager on the "Spirit of St. Louis" build was Hawley Bowlus
1928 VJ-4 Volmer's First Contract
1928 VJ-4
A cantilever wing glider; Jensen's first original design, built for a wealthy sportsman named Thomas D. Stimson of The Stimson Lumber Co.
In 1928 Thomas D Stimson oversaw the Dedication of 'Boeing' Airport, Seattle, July 26, 1928 -- as Member of the National Aeronautic Association
https://digitalcollections.museumofflight.org/items/show/48267
N10336 FAA REGISTRY - Number Inquiry Results Jensen and Stimson
https://registry.faa.gov/aircraftinquiry/Search/NNumberResult?NNumberTxt=10336
June 9, 1929 Associated Press Article
On this date Volmer Jensen, his future wife Margret Hawley, her brother J.R. Hawley were passengers in the crash of a plane piloted by Charles A Rector.
see: Charles A Rector
( He was Mick Jagger's pilot! )
https://dmairfield.org/people/rector_ca/index.html
This source for this original newsprint is unknown though the copy is from the Charles Rector Album Collection
This article from the Associated Press appeared in The Los Angeles Times and describes the crash that happened in Seattle WA
Because of his exploits, Rector became known in the Seattle area as the "Flaming Death Pilot" who won a "Race with Death."
The article does not mention that there was a couple of feet of snow on the ground in near blizzard conditions.
https://dmairfield.org/people/rector_ca/in
West Seattle Herald of June 13, 1929
W.S. [West Seattle] Folks Escape Burning In Plane Are Saved from Death by Calmness of Pilot
A scenic trip above the city on Sunday almost ended disastrously for three West Seattle residents, who were passengers in a monoplane which caught on fire.
The plane, which was driven by Charles A. Rector, a pilot of seven years experience, took off from Boeing Field with the three who were: Peggie and J.R. Hawley, 3052 46th Avenue S.W., and Volmer Jensen, 1106 W. Spokane Street, and circled south over the city. While 2,200 feet above the Jefferson golf course, the gas line broke, and the flame leapt back toward the cabin.
The pilot pumped the fire extinguisher, keeping the flames from reaching into the cabin, where the passengers were. By steering the plane from one long slip into another, he succeeded in making a successful landing, with the only injury to anyone being his own burnt hand.
