Calvin19 0 #51 October 6, 2006 i agree there are good points and bad points to square reserves. thats why i think i will make mine with 2 reserves. hmmm. i need to call the older pilots. paragliders really suck in 1989. i know because i still fly two of them. -SPACE- Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
pchapman 261 #52 October 10, 2006 Quotei had no idea bladders were tested, could you point me in a right direction to look at the test results? My recollection is the same as Piisfish. Bits and pieces of news came out over the years (scattered among a stack of paragliding magazines) as manufacturers experimented with what might work. There might have been a production model or two in the late 80s or early 90s that had some limited spanwise elements along the leading edge. Bladders tended to be associated with attempts to make very high aspect ratio paragliders. But I don't recall anything having an impact on the market. Bladders had the problem of what to do with pressure changes with altitude. I believe the main issue for both bladders and rigid spanwise elements was that it was harder to uncollapse the wing. A side of the wing would be more resistant to collapsing (tucking under) but if it did, the extra rigidity made it much tougher to get the wing to progressively reinflate from the center and pop back into place. It's as if the canopy were stuck in a cravate. So it is a design challenge! There's at least one bladder and one rigid spanwise element briefly mentioned among the pictures of paragliding history & oddities at: http://www.expandingknowledge.com/Jerome/PG/History/Strange/Album.htm Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
