Airwave's new lightweight paraglider, the Himalaya
The Airwave Himalaya was specially designed for use in professional mountain expeditions. They believe it to be the first ‘normal’ sized glider (over 20sq m) with a weight of under 2kg including the risers.
The company say every element of the design has been thought out with weight reduction in mind. The glider has 34 cells and only 2 risers with just 2 or 3 lines on each riser.
The materials are also the lightest available and every construction trick has been used to reduce weight. The brake fan is optimized to be highly effective for easy take off even in difficult high altitude conditions with thin air.
The trim speed is around 40 km/h with a glide of over 7.5:1 . The glider is stable and very easy to fly.
Antoine Girard, a professional mountain climber, will use the Himalaya for his next extreme adventure. Last week Antoine made a descent from Mont Blanc as a practise run for his Himalayan expedition in May 2008, where he will be attempting to fly from four summits all over 8000 metres. All the peaks will be climbed alpine style one after the other, without Sherpas and without oxygen.
The summits are K2 (8611m), G1 (8,068m), G2 (8,035m) and Broad Peak (8,047m)
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