the evolution of the BBHPP 2-line prototype

“The 2-line protos from Ozone demolished us.”
– Team ABAC/Niviuk

“…the Ozone Gliders of Charles and Russ were clearly superior to anything else…”
– Steve Etherington, PWC Pilot

“The climb and glide improvement was evolutionary, the passive stability and resulting ability to hold high speeds through turbulence was revolutionary.”
– Adrian Thomas, PWC Pilot

“It doesn’t get any better than that.”
– Xavier Murillo, PWC Organization

The praise from our peers was at times so strong that it’s almost been embarrassing. But, as you can imagine, we tried our best to enjoy it and the support and encouragement we have received has inspired us to continue development with renewed enthusiasm.

As the lead gaggle at the PWC Super Final accelerated in turbulent air, the two Ozone BBHPPs were seen to have a good speed advantage at more than a full point of extra glide performance, creating a strangely large gap in a sport that measures speed and glide improvements in micro terms.

The BBHPP is a high performance 2 line paraglider. By drastically reducing the amount of line drag and simultaneously reinforcing the profile of the wing for better shape retention at accelerated speeds, the design has proven to be a remarkable leap in performance that signifies not just an improvement in paraglider design, but a new generation of it.

Even though we know that pilot skill and a bit of luck are always important in a paragliding competition, the fact that no other wing in the competition appeared capable of competing with the 2-line BBHPP in straight line performance gave rise to some serious debate over the future of paraglider design for Open Class competition, and for the public. In fact, the BBHPP has spawned a debate over the very definition of a paraglider.

Prior to sending the BBHPP to the PWC Superfinal, the Ozone Test and Design Team made a logical decision: a reinforcement of the profile and leading edge similar to other current designs was clearly not adding a primary structure, and flexible carbon was clearly not rigid, by any available definition. The BBHPP also easily met the requirements for the theoretical load test.

As serious as this debate may be, at Ozone a major part of our philosophy is to not take ourselves too seriously, but at the same time devote our lives to our passion for flight. It is this passion for fun and safe flight that drives us to fly, create, and innovate, 365 days per year. We know that any success we experience is a result of our love for this sport, and for the pilots who share our love for paragliding. And although we seem to have developed the world’s highest performance paraglider, for us, real success is defined very simply as, ‘Happy pilots’.

Anyone who is familiar with Ozone will know that while we have always focused 110% of our energy on developing safe and fun performance wings for pilots of all abilities, we do not have a long history developing Open Class competition wings. While we have always been involved in the Serial Class wing development, the cancellation of the Serial Class Competition circuit meant that our pilots changed to Open Class, and we wanted to be able to continue to offer them Ozone wings. And so it was that, in 2006, we began the Mantra R project whose aim was to test the limits of True Performance in the international competition scene.

With the addition of Luc Armant to the Ozone Test and Design Team in 2008, the Mantra Research program leapt forward. Luc’s ideas were, and still are, practically endless and almost always brilliantly practical. So, throughout 2008, the HPP project tested the upper limits of performance; basically, we wanted to know what would happen if a wing only had one real criterion: glide and speed excellence. With an aspect ratio of more than 10:1, the HPP was certainly the highest performing wing that anyone has ever seen, but it wasn’t realistically usable in active air conditions. The merest hint of a thermal had our test pilots wishing they were safely on the ground. But, this was what we expected, and the search for the ‘usable HPP began’.

One of the tenets of the BBHPP design is absolute minimum line drag. To accomplish this, and improve on the 3-line design, we needed to get it down to 2-lines safely without sacrificing comfort and handling. Luc’s internal design concept was tested and refined until we had something that was not only incredibly efficient, but rather user friendly as well.

In the BBHPP, Ultralight and ultra-thin flexible carbon rods help to maintain positive chord-wise tension, while also helping the profile to maintain its shape at accelerated speeds, giving the added benefit of stability at high speeds in real conditions. For the entire wing, all of these rods weigh only 150gms. These tiny rods are built into the wing during production and actually aid in packing and unpacking the wing. There are three major results of this configuration:

First, extremely low line drag, which equals speed and glide performance.

Second, the added support that this lends to the profile makes for increased stability at higher speeds.

Third, by allowing control inputs to the B risers, the angle of attack is changed evenly making it far more efficient in active air.

After a great deal of R&D, the Baby HPP was born in September of 2008. Luc’s ideas on internal construction and profiling, combined with Dav’s design knowledge and the entire team’s feel for testing, had yielded what was perhaps our most exciting Open Class wing to date. Initial testing showed that the BBHPP had not only amazing performance, but even True Performance, with good agility and a comfortable feel in serious thermal conditions. Luc flew his brainchild extensively on long XC flights, and the entire team tested it throughout the winter and then in the extreme thermals of the springtime Southern Alps, completing impressive triangles in windy conditions.

During these design and flight developments, an air of constant excitement pervaded the office atmosphere. We knew we were onto something big, and the secret of the BBHPP’s performance was hard to keep – flying this wing was just way too much fun! Imagine setting out on a valley crossing and having not only a 70kmh airspeed, but more glide performance than many hang gliders. Soon, Dav was flying the BBHPP to a new French and World Alpine Record distance of 333km from a site near the Ozone office to Sion, Switzerland. The BBHPP was proving to be a magical, dream fulfilling XC glider.

In addition to that, Dav and Luc won the 2009 overall French XC league with just a few flights, in which they accomplished incredible XC voyages around their home mountains in the south of France. But even before then, we knew that the BBHPP was something to be excited about. All of our testing had shown that no other wing came close, and not only that, the BBHPP was a pleasure to fly. There was only one dream left, and that was to show the world, in person, what the BBHPP was capable of.

The timing was excellent for the Paragliding Super Final event in Italy, and with Charles and Russ on the team, we had the perfect pilots for the job. So, on the 2nd of September, our two performance emissaries headed off to the Super Final, each with a shiny BBHPP under their arm. Even after the first task of the event, the best pilots in the world were already talking about the BBHPP. In recent history there has never been a wing that not only pulled away from the lead gaggle with a higher top speed, but did it while gaining altitude on the rest of the wings. Russ and Charles applied their years of competition experience and immense skill in strong, difficult conditions, and excelled. The final result put them in overall 1st and 2nd place for the Super Final Event and also the entire 2009 PWC Season.

We hope that the 2010 World Cup season will see the release of many more technological breakthroughs from all manufacturers. Big steps are possible with or without carbon. We welcome this competition and we are already flying the next generation of our research wings, which are showing even more promising results. We hope that the boundaries of the Open Class will remain open, and that paraglider performance will continue to progress in a safe and responsible manner. We know that the next Open Class wing from Ozone will benefit from not only better performance, but also a high level of passive safety for its class.

Overall, where Ozone will take the BBHPP and Mantra R project will not depend on the decisions of the PMA, PWC, FAI, or CIVL organizations. Our performance research will remain as a project to enhance the performance of all of our wings, not just to prove their performance in competition. We are already designing concept wings in the 1-2 / B class that feature some of the same revolutionary design aspects as the BBHPP, and the lessons that we have learned from this project are already trickling down to all of our serial class designs.

For us, the mission is to bring smiles to the faces of our loyal pilots and the pilots who will fly with us in the future. Although we like making our competition pilots happy as well, our philosophy has always been to create fun and safe wings for pilots of all abilities, with performance that is tuned to match the character of every wing. If and when a 2-Line wing becomes feasible in the intermediate class, you can be sure that it will be every bit as fun and safe as our current wings in that category.

We’d like to thank Russ and Charles for flying the BBHPP so well, and Dav and Luc for putting so much of their heart and soul into all of our designs. It’s far more than a full time job for us, it’s our life, and we love it. And we’d like to thank you for flying Ozone and keeping us going for more than a decade of amazing flying.

Cheers, from all the Team.

The Ozone Performance Project from Ozone Films on Vimeo.