Genghis is great!
Thanks very much for the reply. I'm jaw dropped impressed! I really appreciate the very in depth responses to the questions I posed as well as the reading suggestions. I really enjoyed the anecdotes too. Among the reasons why I'd like to do this instead of build drones. You guys have cooler stories
FYI, I grew up in the town where Francis Rogallo was born (Sanger, CA!). I'm not a hang glider pilot, but have a special affinity towards his work. If I were sitting in your office, I would mention shifting the weight to the inside of the turn. This would cause a moment about the longitudinal axis and shift the lift vector towards the turn. You would most likely have to increase overall lift to keep from losing altitude. In a hang glider, this is pushing the nose of the wing up/ moving the weight back. Even though it's a flexible wing, I don't think there is so much wing warping that drag on the in side is the predominant factor.
Do I pass? I know nothing of gyroplanes other than they were big in the 30's.
As for the SR-71 question. I'm going to have to think about that a bit. Since the F-16 was the first fly-by wire plane, that means the SR-71 had positive directional stability. It had very small vertical stabilizers that seems insufficient for stabilizing the long nose (small tail volume). Remembering the equation, it seems that the aerodynamic center would have to be pretty far forward for positive stability, but that's not the case since the wings were so small. Unless the large fillets moved the AC up....