PARAKITE
Paragliding has been "invented" in the early 80's by montain dwellers. Since, this sport has been developped by montain dwellers for the thermal flight in the montains.
But since I'm living on the seaside (like many people in this planet !), my practise of the paragliding has radically changed : I'm playing for hours close to the ground in more or less strong wind conditions, along the ridge slope or the sand dune.
On my spots, I felt frustrated not to be able to fly forward for landing on the water and to continue in sailing as kitesurfers do.
Moreover, I needed a higher speedrange than my paraglider, for security but also to preserve a good glide feeling in strong wind.
I decided in 2006 to buy my first big waterproof kite and to transform it to be able to fly safe like a paraglider, while preserving its capacity to be used as a traction kite.
I discovered then the possibilities offered by a such equipment, and the feeling it can produce in flying soaring with it. Flying with a Parakite offers really a new flight experience, different from standard paraglider or even small paraglider.
If you're interested, you'll find in the next chapter more details on the technical innovations which could be applied to a paraglider to transform it into a hybrid paraglider/kite wing (Parakite).
HISTORY OF PARAKITE
The research of the ideal sailwing for flying and gliding is not dated from today. You'll find below some of the pionners in mixing the free flight and the traction kite.
A. Kuhn and D. Strasilla : the pioneers
Since the 70s, the Swiss Andréa Kuhn used parachute wings to be towed in ski, raised slopes and flying down ! The glide on the water was also investigated.
Andréa Kuhn was attached under his wing with a bar named "Skywing", developed by Dieter Strasilla, a German inventor.
Andréa Kuhn and Dieter Strasilla are the real pioneers, as they invented at the same time paragliding, snowkiting and kitesurfing, without any borders between activities at this time !
However, the "rediscovery" of paragliding in the middle of the 80s supplanted these avant-gardist experiments.
Experiments of the Legaignoux brothers
In the mid 80s, Bruno and Dominique Legaignoux ended the development of their inflatable leading edge (LEI) kite, which was going to mark the beginning of the kitesurf development.
For this period, they made some flight experiments with their LEI wings, as prove these pictures dated from 1985. But these Brittany sailors determinedly directed their invention to the water traction kite market . Why try to fly with a kite while the paragliding was beginning to emerge?
Divergence... and convergence !
From this time, the paragliding and the kite towing thus evolved in two independent activities. Nevertheless, something begins to change since 2004/2005. In this period, some links begin to reappear between both activities. In the paragliding field, the appearance of small surface wings resulting from the development of speedriding is going to mark an obvious link with the kite field.
The Pyrenean manufacturer Nervures mark this bend since 2004 with its small surface "Swoop".
In 2005 Armin Harich, the Flysurfer's kite designer, hangs on to one of his kite foil (the famous Speed1 17m2) with a harness and risers and takes off from a paragliding site. He demonstrated there is no tight borders between a kite and a paraglider.
The development of the snowkite and the improvement of the equipment lead skills riders to investigate the ridge flying. The ridge flying is going to become a full part of the snowkite practice.
In around 2005, some skills paragliders like Olivier Fritz or Charlie Picollo use wooden boards to slide on the sand of the Pyla Dune towed by their paragliding wings.
Charlie Picollo is the first one to investigate a way of hybridization even more accomplished by imagining a small paragliding wing in a long lines configuration. The not complete satisfactory flight behavior of this wing will not allow him to go further to this way. It should be noticed that this wing did not allow to navigate because of the opened cells.
Finally so put into prospect, the Parakite has nothing of an activity taken out from nowhere. It is finally only the natural confluence point between the paragliding and the kitesurfing sports as the pioneers had been able to imagine 30 years ago, before these activities differ and evolve each from their part.
The technical evolutions make possible this hybridization today, which represents a glide fantasy for numerous wind users