Nerd Out on Paraglider Design

[OzBungy]

This video is a talk by Hannes Papesh, who is a legend of paragliding design. It's worth a bit of a skim through. There's some pretty interesting stuff, particularly in the latter part of the video. Things like the effect of stretch on diagonals and cell sizing in tips and stuff.

[mgs]

I remember Hannes Papesh from Nova.
Nova Wings (Paragliding Company) also hosted "Boom Kites" does anybody else remember "Boom Kites"?
Kites included the "Vector" and the "Skite."

[kitexpert]

I remember Hannes Papesh from Nova.
Nova Wings (Paragliding Company) also hosted "Boom Kites" does anybody else remember "Boom Kites"?
Kites included the "Vector" and the "Skite."

I do remember those kites. Quality products in their own way and they had pretty modern mixers. They were quite low or mid AR kites and didn't have that many cells. But there was half cell D-ribs which kind of doubled the cell count of upper surface.

However in those days they didn't know how to make foil kites turn properly or they didn't understand kites should be agile. Canopy curve was flat and wingtips were thin. Then you really had to crank huge 60cm bar to get some movement up there, looping 11.5m size needed some serious attitude Bar feel was almost non existent, very low pressure and you really didn't have that much connection. No wonder C-kite users of those days thought they were completely crappy kites

There wasn't much bridle lines, so in that respect there certainly was some effort in design. However existing lines were very very long...

[OzBungy]

I rode Boom kites for most of the early 2000's. They were way ahead of their time. Flysurfer were still trying to do depower by applying brakes to slow down the kite. Boom had a fully functioning mixer bridle and auto-stable profile that offered almost unlimited depower.

Ultimately they were surpassed by the rise of the bow kites that offered similar depower but more robustness. That and the Nova management weren't keen on spending money to develop a new business when their paragliding business was, and still is, very successful.

[Schietwedder]

Yes Hannes is a real R&D legend (in paragliding world)
Many of those principles apply to foil kite design as well despite the usage of different profiles, depower, bridle layout and closed cells/collapse mechanisms.

Another difference is that paraglider has (almost) fixed mixer despite speedbar and brakes, but is free in jaw and roll.
On a kite we have fixed roll but want a lot of yaw (nice turning) to be allowed. Also we can't change the line differential in front lines. The PG pilot does that with weight shifting.

Its interesting to see what the kite depowerable stable profile and mixer does to the dynamics of a paraglider (see flare mustache). Collapses get delayed but then are more aggressive.
The pilot can trade glide/speed for height/climb or descent on a way larger safe envelope.

Learned a lot from Hannes interviews/presentations/podcasts for designing and making my own kites for sure! Especially on Aeroelasticity and kite structure layout .

Other inspiring designers/tech geeks are Michael Nessler, Horst Altmann (Balooning DHV Magazine), Rob Whitall (Ozone) Benni Bölli and Armin(Flysurfer/Skywalk/Flare)

[evan]

Its interesting to see what the kite depowerable stable profile and mixer does to the dynamics of a paraglider (see flare mustache). Collapses get delayed but then are more aggressive.
The pilot can trade glide/speed for height/climb or descent on a way larger safe envelope.

I am flying converted race kites at the moment besides a CCC paraglider for low wind as even the biggest race kites lack the power of a high performance glider. But even compared to a CCC wing a race kite is something special. Wind range, speed, energy recovery, ease of use and absence of collapse make all other wings feel obsolete.

If only Flare or another brand could bring out a high performance soaring wing with an active mixer I wouldn't have to grab a kite. This is clearly the future of soaring, true 3D flying!