The Windtech Coral is a Spanish single-place

paraglider Paragliding is the recreational and competitive adventure sport of flying paragliders: lightweight, free-flying, foot-launched glider aircraft with no rigid primary structure. The pilot sits in a harness or lies supine in a cocoon-like 'po ...

that was designed and produced by

Windtech Parapentes Windtech Parapentes ( en, Windtech Paragliders, italic=yes) is a Spanish aircraft manufacturer based in Gijón and founded in 1994. The company specializes in the design and manufacture of paragliders in the form of ready-to-fly aircraft, as we ...

Gijón Gijón () or () is a city and municipality in north-western Spain. It is the largest city and municipality by population in the autonomous community of Asturias. It is located on the coast of the Cantabrian Sea in the Bay of Biscay, in the cent ...

. It is now out of production.Bertrand, Noel; Rene Coulon; et al: ''World Directory of Leisure Aviation 2003-04'', page 36. Pagefast Ltd, Lancaster OK, 2003.

Design and development

The aircraft was designed as a beginner glider for school

flight training Flight training is a course of study used when learning to pilot an aircraft. The overall purpose of primary and intermediate flight training is the acquisition and honing of basic airmanship skills. Flight training can be conducted under a str ...

use. The models are each named for their approximate wing area in square metres. The design features pitch control stability to simplify beginner ground handling. Also the cells decrease in width towards the

wing tip A wing tip (or wingtip) is the part of the wing that is most distant from the fuselage of a fixed-wing aircraft. Because the wing tip shape influences the size and drag of the wingtip vortices, tip design has produced a diversity of sha ...

s to improve turn co-ordination. The glider wing is made from Porcher Marine Skytex 44 g/m2

nylon Nylon is a generic designation for a family of synthetic polymers composed of polyamides ( repeating units linked by amide links).The polyamides may be aliphatic or semi-aromatic. Nylon is a silk-like thermoplastic, generally made from petro ...

fabric. The rib reinforcements are 310 g/m2

Dacron Polyethylene terephthalate (or poly(ethylene terephthalate), PET, PETE, or the obsolete PETP or PET-P), is the most common thermoplastic polymer resin of the polyester family and is used in fibres for clothing, containers for liquids and foods ...

, with the

trailing edge The trailing edge of an aerodynamic surface such as a wing is its rear edge, where the airflow separated by the leading edge meets.Crane, Dale: ''Dictionary of Aeronautical Terms, third edition'', page 521. Aviation Supplies & Academics, 1997. ...

reinforcement fabricated of 175 g/m2

polyester Polyester is a category of polymers that contain the ester functional group in every repeat unit of their main chain. As a specific material, it most commonly refers to a type called polyethylene terephthalate (PET). Polyesters include natural ...

. The lines are all sheathed

Kevlar Kevlar (para-aramid) is a strong, heat-resistant synthetic fiber, related to other aramids such as Nomex and Technora. Developed by Stephanie Kwolek at DuPont in 1965, the high-strength material was first used commercially in the early 1970s a ...

of 1.1 and 1.7 mm in diameter. The risers are made from 25 mm wide polyester strapping.

Variants

;Coral 27 :Small-sized model for lighter pilots. Its span wing has a wing area of , 29 cells and the aspect ratio is 4.5:1. The take-off weight range is . The glider model is Deutscher Hängegleiterverband e.V. (DHV) 1 certified. ;Coral 29 :Mid-sized model for medium-weight pilots. Its span wing has a wing area of , 29 cells and the aspect ratio is 4.5:1. The take-off weight range is . The glider model is DHV 1 certified. ;Coral 32 :Large-sized model for heavier pilots. Its span wing has a wing area of , 29 cells and the aspect ratio is 4.5:1. The take-off weight range is . The glider model is DHV 1 certified.

Specifications (Coral 29)

References

External links

* {{Windtech aircraft

Coral Corals are marine invertebrates within the class Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact colonies of many identical individual polyps. Coral species include the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and sec ...

Paragliders