Magic4 - Breakthough

The Magic4 makes Paragliding History
On 21st dec 2005 paragliding history was made. The first true 3 line paraglider was certified with the DHV. At Airwave we have been working on three line gliders for 5 years ever since Bruce achieved an impressive performance flying a three liner in the PWC in Mexico in 2001, but it is really only in the last 2 years that the three liners have began to dominate the world competition scene. Perhaps the most significant date in the history of 3 liners was October 2004 when 1st, 2nd and 3rd places at the European Championships in Greece all went to 3 line gliders. This was quite astounding when you consider that 97% of the competitors were flying 4 line gliders. There were just four 3 line gliders flying out of a field of 130 competitors. Since then, both the World Championships and the World Cup have both been won by pilots on 3 line gliders, even though 90% of pilots continue to fly with traditional 4 line designs.

The Theory - More performance
The answer for the success is quite simple. 3 rows of lines have significantly less drag then 4 rows - and this gives more performance. However to achieve good flight characteristics and safety with only 3 rows of lines is not straight forward, and this is why it has taken us 5 years of work to make the first production glider with 3 rows of lines. Getting a 3 line glider with good safety and handling as well as passing the DHV is not easy. During the development of the Magic3 we made several improvements to the sail shaping and structure of the wing to achieve the type of wing we were looking for.
We were able to reduce the line length by around 70meters. Imagine flying with that 70m of line dangling from your harness in the wind. No wonder it makes such a huge difference to performance.

More stability
The good news does not stop there, because it is not only performance that gets the boost, We were able to increase stability at speed as well.

So it is not surprising that since the last European Championships every major World event since then has been won by 3 line gliders. What is perhaps surprising is that there has been little discussion about this fact!

During the development of the Magic4 we had identical prototypes of the glider flying, one with 3 lines and one with 4. The 3 row glider consistently showed better glide by between a half and one point of glide at trim speed. Accelerated, the difference was much greater, but with greater stability as well. So if three liners are so good why does everyone not make them? It is not easy to make a 3 line glider as safe and with the same feel as a four line one. With the Magic4 we have achieved this and produced a glider that is both safe and easy to fly. The handling is sweet and the performance is outrageous.

Other Innovations in the Magic4:

1) Higher AR.

The AR is 6.22 on all sizes of the Magic4. This is higher than any other DHV2/3 we have produced but is actually relatively low when you consider the large steps we have made recently in wing stability. We prefer our glider to remain accessible and easy to fly which is why we have chosen what we now feel is a relatively modest AR. Our performance models show that increasing AR gives less performance gain than reducing line length. The disadvantage from increasing AR is greater than that of reducing line length.

2) 5 riser system with 12mm Kevlar reinforced webbing.

This riser system is taken directly from the FR2 and has proved itself both simple and extremely effective and easy to use.

3) Refined progressive closed cells

The Magic1 was the first certified paraglider with closed cells in 2000. Since then we have continued to develop the technology of closed cells, and they now seamless integrate into the wing giving super smooth and progressive inflation as well as reducing wasteful air splillage during glide at all speeds.

4) Exponential wing arc

There has been much talk recently about low and high arc wings. Well the new Magic 4 has a carefully selected wing arc that is neither high nor low but a happy medium. What is new though is the way the arc is distributed though the wing: in an exponential way. This new kind of arc just looks right from the first time you see the glider, and is partly responsible for the lovely handling of the wing.

5) Hybrid Sail

Like all new Airwave gliders the topsail is a hybrid mixture of cloths. Gelvenor on the leading edge of the top surface and lightweight porcher on the back part and the lower surface. This gives a sail that is both light weight and long lasting.

Astounding Glide Performance

The theoretically predicted glide performance for the Magic4 if flown with a Ram C harness to optimise the performance is an astounding 10.6. As yet we have not made sufficiently accurate measurements to confirm this glide performance, but the measurements we have made do confirm a glide in excess of 10:1.