Everything You Need to Know About Small Wings
If you weigh less than 60 kg, then you’ve probably already been called a “lightweight,” and you likely sometimes have trouble finding a wing that fits you. Besides, who hasn’t heard it said at some point in their paragliding career that smaller wings perform worse than others?
In fact, within the same wing series and at the same wing loading, the paraglider with the smallest wing area will tend to behave differently from the largest one. Where do these differences in behavior come from, and how can they be explained in terms of design? In this article, we’ll take a closer look at this issue, which concerns many pilots.
Big Size Vs Small Size: What Are The Differences Between design ?
To understand the reasons behind the differences in performance between different sizes of the same paraglider model, it is important to examine the paraglider design process.
When creating a new line of wings, designers begin by developing the wing in a single size. This size is generally chosen to match the test pilots’ “ all-up weight ” (all-up weight), so that they can test the prototypes without adding weight and thus avoid skewing the flying experience. Since test pilots rarely have a “ all-up weight ” that matches the smallest wings, the larger sizes are developed first and then scaled down to smaller sizes.
After finalizing the design of the first size, the next step is to apply a similarity transformation* to create a working template for the other sizes. However, this alone is not enough to guarantee the performance of each sail. It is therefore necessary to individually adjust the characteristics and dimensions of each size before approving production of the entire line.
*Homothety: Homothety is a geometric transformation that enlarges or reduces a figure while preserving its shape. This means that the dimensions of the original figure are multiplied by a constant factor to obtain the new figure, which is a similar image of the original. In other words, homothety changes the size of a figure without distorting it.
However, a perfect homothety would have to reduce not only the structure’s dimensions and geometry, but also the diameter of the rods and suspension lines used, as well as the thickness of the fabric that makes up the profile. Yet this is not the case in reality: the dimensions of the materials—whether their diameter or thickness—remain unchanged regardless of the size of the sail the designers are working on.
We must therefore revise and modify the scaling performed earlier so that the wing’s characteristics match the materials that remain consistent across the entire line. Consequently, we can already conclude that two sizes, even though they belong to the same line, will never be perfectly identical in terms of structure and pure construction.
What are the consequences of these differences in design?
The materials used have a significant impact on the behavior of small paraglider due to their weight. Indeed, given that the diameter of a Rush remains constant whatever the size of the glider, its contribution to the total weight is more significant on small gliders than on large ones. This principle also applies to other components such as straps, lines and Fabrics. So, despite the reduction in glider size, the weight of materials has a proportionally greater influence on smaller gliders than on larger ones.
This additional weight affects the wing's inertia, thereby altering its behavior compared to the specifications originally developed by the designers. This inertia tends to make the wing more responsive, with more energy in its movements.
To prevent a wing from “pitching up” too much, designers must then adjust the trim settings to raise the wingtips and counterbalance this effect.
By slightly increasing the angle of attack of the stabilizers, the wing’s more energetic movements are smoothed out thanks to a less aggressive profile, and reopening the wing is made easier. However, this also results in additional drag, which slightly reduces the wing’s performance.
In short, to ensure a consistent level of passive safety across the entire product line, designers sometimes have to make compromises in terms of performance. It’s worth noting that this difference is minuscule and almost negligible on beginner kites. However, it’s much more noticeable at the high end, on competition kites like the CCC, where every detail can make a difference. This is the main reason why smaller kites are known to be slower and less high-performance than their larger counterparts.
Testing and Certification: What Are the Implications?
In addition to design, several other factors come into play when developing and launching glider for smaller pilots.
Designers face another challenge that may lead them to propose all-up weight ranges greater than what a wing can actually handle: certification and load testing.
all-up weight To understand this point, it’s important to know that each wing size is certified separately from the rest of the range (which is why you’ll find a different certification report for each size). During the certification process, a wing is tested twice: once at the mini all-up weight , and once at the max .
This is where our problem comes in: if the test pilot’s all-up weight is too light to reach the maximum all-up weight , he simply needs to add weight to reach the upper end of the range. On the other hand, if he is too heavy for the minimum all-up weight , there is nothing he can do about it, and a lighter pilot must be found to perform the test.
To certify a wing with a very low glide all-up weight , a very light pilot with the necessary flying skills must be available to put the wing through the certification tests. As you can imagine, such a pilot is not always available to test the smaller wing sizes.
Finally, let’s take a look at the load test. Unlike the certification process, where each size is tested individually, only the largest size in the range is put to the test during the load test. The smaller sizes are then designed with the same level of strength, even though the stresses and strains they will encounter are less than those of the largest size.
As a result, the designer ensures that the entire range complies with the load test, but the smallest sizes are significantly oversized. This is very reassuring, but it also means extra weight for the smaller sizes. As we saw earlier, extra weight means extra inertia, which again brings us to the consequences described before : more aggressive behavior, twisting of the glider tips, extra drag and potentially degraded performance.
The Evolution of the Paragliding Community
Finally, we can address a point that has more to do with the evolution of paragliding and the profile of its participants than with design per se.
These days, there are more smaller-statured paragliders than before, partly due to the increase in the number of women participating in the sport. In fact, while women (who tend to be smaller in stature than men) now account for about 1 in 6 pilots, their numbers were much lower just a few years ago. In addition, paragliding has become more accessible thanks to technological innovations, and paragliders are starting to fly at a younger age, which means they are also lighter. For all these reasons, market demand for small- all-up weight s is steadily increasing.
In the past, manufacturers had little incentive to spend a lot of time developing small wing sizes, since the market for them was particularly limited. But now, this market is growing, and the demand for suitable equipment is increasing. That is why designers are paying closer attention to their product lines to offer a all-up weight ranges that go lower than before. This market expansion is also prompting designers to focus more on the challenges associated with designing small wings and to find solutions that ensure performance comparable to that of larger sizes. In short, the industry is evolving to meet the needs of pilots.
In conclusion
You now have all the information you need to understand the differences that may exist between two sizes within the same product line and the reasons behind them. Whether for reasons of passive safety or to adapt to market demand, the way small fenders are designed is constantly evolving and remains a hot topic in engineering departments.
However, it’s essential to keep one key point in mind: always choose your paraglider based on the weight range all-up weight recommended by the manufacturer. It’s not recommended to choose a larger wing and add weight to fly below that range in order to get a higher-performance wing. The best wing will always be the one that matches your size.
For lighter pilots reading this article, we invite you to discover the wing that meets all these design challenges: the LEAF3 Light XXS, an EN-B wing suitable for pilots weighing as little as 45 kg ( all-up weight), is just as fun and high-performing as its bigger siblings. Its handling remains playful and intuitive to support your progress after you’ve moved on from your training wing.
For all other sizes, we hope you'll find what you're looking for in the Supair wing lineup so you can fly a paraglider that suits you.
LEAF 3 Light XXS - designed for very light weights!
