Hi Look These
a very intressted .

jochen

Archaeopteryx Demo-Clip (7 min 38 sec)

Now I gotta get me one of those!!

My that's my type of hang glider

You too can jump off a cliff as often as you like for a mere 100K.

Pete

Dunno about ultralights but conventional sailplanes are usually stressed for in excess of six G's.

http://paramotornews.com/2010/10/08/...reserve-chute/

Not to denigrate the glider itself, the pilot admits blame, but I don't think you could tear the wings off a conventional glider and not know you were doing something extremely wrong. Even three G's feels like a lot the first few times.

Pete

Who wants to be the first to DS it?

Does anyone remember the Carbon Dragon, US homebuilt ultralight that was probably the first foot launched enclosed sailplane? I've seen several videos of it flying and Paul McCready offered to do the maiden foot launch, which is a high compliment for the design. The builders stopped offering plans many years go, but half sized plans are a free download.

Just wondering if anyone knew the history and whether or not it was ever foot launched. The stall speed was listed as 19 mph which means that it probably started supporting some of the pilot's weight before 15 mph.

Just curious.

Pete

The Archaeopteryx is a beautiful freaking glider. From the first video, the name plate says VNE 130 km/h...that's not very fast. VNE includes "maneuvers", not yanking back on the stick with both hands. This plane is floater. Not really meant for loops. Certainly not DS. It has no problem doing high banked turns.

Still surprised by wing failure....didn't look like he was going all that fast. That wing broke the instant that he pulled up.

Kent

Originally Posted by Knoll53

[snip]
Still surprised by wing failure....didn't look like he was going all that fast. That wing broke the instant that he pulled up.

Kent

Which is why I wonder what standards it was built to.

Conventional sailplanes have a working positive limit of six G's and an ultimate load factor of nine G's I'd guess the negative load factors are around 3/4ths the plus side. If that''s just a number to you, imagine five people sitting on your lap. You'd definitely notice and you'd still be three people short of failure.

We'll never know for sure what happened, but it didn't look like the pilot did anything extreme. I really have to wonder what the ultimate load factor is and how it was tested. Sure makes that 'chute look worth the extra bucks!

Pete