Brazilian company Sol have built and flown the world’s first ever one-liner paraglider. The video above is proof that the ‘One’ actually flies, and in the conditions it was flown in, the pilot in the video looks fairly relaxed aboard the wing.
It was conceived by Sol’s experienced research and development team, under designer Andre Rottet. The team have spent years experimenting with the development and manufacturing limitations of paragliders. Previous experiments have included double top surfaces, various valves (in the top and bottom surfaces and in the leading edge), battens, they have built gliders using profiles from other aircraft, and have experimented with various materials and coatings.
Sol say the One performs substantially better than a two-liner, and has impressive stability and no dive tendency. It does, however, need to be handled differently. It can only be steered by using the stabilo lines to the wingtips and by weightshift, but it launches in the same way as any other paraglider.
• Got news? Send it to us at news@xccontent.local.
Subscribe to the world’s favourite hang gliding and paragliding magazine
home
