12/25/2023 0 Comments Hang glider designErnst's list of colleagues reads like a 'Who's Who' of paragliding. In 1992 Ernst Schneider establishes UP Europe in Sindelsdorf near Garmisch and all development and testing is carried out in Europe. Global Expansion from Germanyīy now the burgeoning paragliding market is demanding of UP a more formal and resolute business organization and market approach. Yet the Flash remains Gin's only design for UP since he is coaxed to another paragliding newcomer, Edel, with a lucrative offer.Īt this time, Claus Bichlmeier is UP's importer for the German-speaking markets. The glider dominates in competition and becomes a bestseller. The Flash is the first paraglider with a perfectly smooth leading edge and has more performance than anything else on the market. together with test pilot Greg Smith, is revolutionary. Though UP is a latecomer to paragliding, the company hits the mark in 1990 with the relatively unknown Korean designer Gin Seok Song. Despite various technical innovations, the TRX remains the last successful UP hang glider for some time. The TRX, the first production series hang glider with carbon tube elements, is developed at the Soaring Center under the guidance of UP's new designer, Terry Reynolds. If UP's logo is the stuff of legend, so are its corporate locations like the UP Soaring Center in Salt Lake City. Even today at famous Venice Beach in Los Angeles one can find rollerbladers leaning against the UP arrow logo as they take breaks on park benches donated by the local UP surf shop in the mid-80s. In Japan one can find the UP arrow on the UP-Sports clothing line, and on T-shirts, jackets and socks. Encouraged by the success of the hang gliding business, Isomura diversifies the UP brand into windsurfing, UL-flying and fashion. Through the continued influence of Yuseke Yamazaki, UP becomes UP International, a wholly owned subsidiary of a Japanese parent company, Isomura, Inc. Ownership and location of the firm change in the following years. In the mid-80s Pete Brock and Roy Haggard retire from the everyday business. In 1982 Airwave, UP's representative in Europe, produces the Magic, which is nothing more than a modified Comet. Success breeds followers, and the Comet is a natural target for copying. Jim Lee sets the world distance record at 268 km with a Comet in 1981, and eventually the UP Comet becomes one of the biggest-selling hang gliders of all time. The Comet's outrigger-free construction concept is revolutionary and is still valid today. The year 1980 also marks the introduction of Roy Haggard's latest pioneering development, the UP Comet. The first is in 1980, when Yuseke Yamazaki, a Japanese investor from a dynasty of Samurais, lays the foundation for UP's success in Asia. The logo and the brand's positive image attract the interest of various investors over the company's three-decade history. The UP arrow achieves cult status from the beginning and for many pilots characterises like no other logo the spirit of hang gliding and later paragliding. Helping the company gain success quickly is Pete Brock's logo design. A series of successful designs follow, including the Condor with its world record duration flight of 16 hours, 4 minutes in 1979. The Dragonfly is the first tenable post-Rogallo glider and becomes the flagship of their newly founded company, Ultralight Products. However, when Pete Brock gets together with the young designer Roy Haggard, a new concept is born. This also holds true for Pete's first design, the Brock Redtail. While there are several glider models on the market there is only one common theme- they are all extremely dangerous. Brock soon discovers a new passion: hang gliding- probably the most radical sport imaginable in the early 70s. Ferrari on the basis of the Cobra 427, quickly become legendary. His racecar designs, like the GM Daytona Coupé- a kind of U.S. Pete Brock finishes his studies at the Art Center, a world-renowned school of industrial design, as its youngest graduate ever.
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