JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #112 - April/May 2017 - 55

sailplane SOLUTlONS

A miniature carbon glider

It is named for a winged dinosaur, the archæopteryx. But there is nothing
prehistoric about this carbon hybrid hang glider/paraglider/sailplane, on the
contrary. Made in Switzerland, it is a flying machine that enables humans to
realize Leonardo da Vinci's dream.

l

t only takes four or five strides
before one is soaring through
the air. "It is the most comfortable, ingenious and well-designed
wing ever made!" exclaims the
craft's pilot, enthusiastically. "On
one hand, you can make very tight
turns in the updrafts as you would
with a paraglider, close to the slope.
On the other, you take off and land
in the same terrain and conditions
as with a hang glider. And you can
plan and manage your flight like a
glider pilot, with long trips of 200300 kilometers per day."
Sixty kilograms
of 100% Swiss fabrication
This little gem, which can take
off on a slope thanks to an

At work on the wings by hand layup !

opening under the cockpit, is
entirely made in Switzerland.
It was designed at the Zurich
University of Applied Sciences
(ZHW) as part of a research
project, and since 2000 has
been developed and built meticulously down to the last detail by Ruppert Composites.
It is a bit like a glider made of
wood and fabric, except that
the wood is replaced by carbon or aramid fibres, and the
fabric by a perfectly smooth
synthetic
film.
Ruppert
Composites uses hand layup
with Huntsman 5052 resin to
make the wings, inserting the
sandwich sections in front of
the spar and on the ribs along
the back of the wings.
The craft itself weighs only
60 kg, and can support a
pilot from 1m65 to 1m95
(5'4" to 6'4") in height, weighing 55-100 kg (121-220 lb). It
is easily assembled and disassembled, and can be towed by
a car in a special trailer or by
an ultralight aircraft.
"Great performance"
The craft beats all glide records. In aviation, the glide
ratio represents the number
of meters travelled for one

Take off of the glider

meter of descent. A paraglider can travel at most 10 meters; a hang glider, 15 meters;
and the Archæopteryx, up to
28 meters. The intent of the
specifications was to make it
a "low-speed" champion, and
this has been very successful:
thanks to a minimum turn radius of about 15 meters and
a low sink ratio, it is unquestionably the non-motorized
aircraft that climbs the best, all
categories lumped together. Its
stall speed is 30 km/h, so it is
very high-performing.
The Archæopteryx is easy to
control, lands very gently (but
take care of your knees and
beware of rocky terrain!), and

N°112 April - May 2017

has already made a successful
400+km round-trip flight in
the Swiss Alps.
It comes in either a basic "torpedo" version or equipped
with cockpit fairing and
windshield. The dream of
Leonardo da Vinci and other
humans comes with a hefty
price tag: around €95,000,
depending on the model.
Two years ago, the company
started developing a prototype with two electric motors to provide self-launch
capability. 
More information:
www.ruppert-composite.ch

/ jec composites magazine

55
http://www.ruppert-composite.ch
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #112 - April/May 2017
