A Look Back - 1971: Our fascination with flight lived on

It has since been marked as a historic day in hang gliding.

The day that thrust an odd hobby by a few into the national spotlight with a front page article in the Los Angeles Times. In honor of hang gliding pioneer Otto Lilienthal, who would’ve been 123 on May 23, 1971, more than a dozen “birdmen,” or hang gliders, took to the skies off Newport Beach’s coast.

They stood on the hills off Pacific View Memorial Park in Corona del Mar, ready to soar.

“There has not been anything quite like them seen since Wilbur and Orville Wright went on to bigger things in 1903,” The Times reported in 1971.

It was the first gathering of the hobbyists in more than 70 years, organizers of the event said. Lilienthal, who was nicknamed the “Glider King” in Germany for his repeated, successful flights, would’ve been proud.

Below, 500 people watched as the gliders — a throwback to the days before powered flight created by the Wright brothers — reminded people of the first days of human flight.

How appropriate that an activity that once led to death was launching off the edge of a cemetery.

But that day in 1971, no one would die. The worst anyone would suffer was a bruise as they glided up to 800 feet above the ground.

Lilienthal wasn’t so fortunate back in the 1890s, however. He died after falling 56 feet during one of his flights.

Organizers that day 38 years ago in Newport Beach said the sport still has its dangers, but better understanding of winds, aerodynamics and sturdier vehicles keeps gliders mostly safe.

“Still,” Jack Lambie, a participant that day, told The Times. “You get that same feeling of wondering if the thing you’ve designed is actually going to fly. The thrill is still there.”

“We’re returning to the joyful act of being pulled up toward the heavens either by love or by wing,” Joe Faust, editor of the publication put by the Venice-based sponsoring organization Low and Slow, told The Times.

Several websites credit the gathering in Newport Beach as sparking a new generation of interest in the hobby.