Trike's originated from the development of a directional parachute designed by the aeronautical engineer Francis M. Rogallo that was patented in 1960. The design was intended to return spacecraft to Earth and be able to direct the payload to a specific landing area unlike the round parachutes, which offered a hit or miss landing at best.
In May 1961 NASA requested studies of an inflatable Rogallo-type Parawing for spacecraft. This was called the Paresev (Paraglider Rescue Vehicle) and was designed by Charles Richard.
The research prototypes had a triangular type sail with round metal leading edges and a spreader bar that held the wings open. A very basic frame with three wheels was attached underneath. The pilot controlled it with a long bar hanging in front of him which, when pushed forward, would help the craft to climb and when pulled back, descend. To turn he would simply move the bar left or right or was it that simple?
No! Not so simple.
It was a pilot's nightmare because the controls were the reverse of a conventional aircraft. In a three-axis control aircraft, pushing the control forward initiates a descent and pulling back makes it go up. To turn a conventional aircraft, push left to go left while in the Parasev, push left to go right. An arrangement of levers at the top of the control stick was made to overcome this problem.
The Parasev had no motor and was towed behind a truck and later behind an aircraft and did over 350 flights. Similar wings were built by adventurous individuals and used for hang gliding.
As hang gliders developed the pilots redesigned the undercarriage and attached it to their wings and fitted motors to them. The development of the hang glider wings played a significant role in the improvement of the performance and standards of trikes.
Today they have become more compact, transportable, durable, versatile, light, less complicated and safe motorized-recreational sport flying machines.
Modern trikes can travel at 100 miles per hour, have been flown to heights of 31 900 feet, circumnavigated the world and flown adventures of 45 000km…yes it's true.
The trike has become the fastest growing form of recreational aviation in the world.
