Video: 'Woopy Jump' Inflatable (Sorta Arup) Flying Ski Wing!
Wednesday, December 21, 2011 at 10:28PM
(best viewed with speakers off!)
The slick little glider in this video is called a Woopy-Jump. A while back I saw a video for the enlarged and motorized version of this inflatable flying wing concept called the Woopy-Fly, and while I found it interesting, it just didn't quite trip my trigger. But now I learn of this ultra compact glider version (which is where the idea started to begin with) and I gotta say it's actually one of the coolest flying machines I've ever seen. And it's not just about how the thing flies, it's also in the looks... it reminds me a lot in basic planform of the 1930's era Arup, an almost forgotten aircraft designed by a podiatrist in South Bend Indiana, just up the road from where I live. I've included a few pix at the end of the post of the Arup, and I'll have a dedicated post on it in the future.
Video screenshot showing the very small Woopy-Jump glider wing area
Back to the Woopy-Jump. It's been around for a few years now having been designed by Swiss inventor Laurent de Kalbermatten and is named for what people tend to say (woopie!) when they fly it - and the Jump comes from it being more for short flights or 'jumps'. The wing is fabric with very little internal structure. It is then inflated to give a very nice airfoil shape. That shape is maintained by two small battery powered blowers and it's claimed that it can sustain a small hole without deflating. It appears from the info on the website that the wing only weighs 22 pounds! That's part of the reason the wing area can be so small; about 110 square feet with about a 17 foot span.
When you also consider that this is a very low drag design with no wires or struts, and the fact that it's really meant to be flying with a fairly high rate of sink (meaning almost always down the slope of a ski hill), then you get even more of an idea as to how it can fly with such a small wing. Two other aspects of the design make a lot of sense to me. The small wing keeps the wing loading high which has to help when flying when the air is turbulent. I don't think flying down a ski hill where the air can be a bit dicey in a very low wing loading glider would be a very good idea at all! And the other interesting concept is the fact that the landing gear is a pair of skis. That means instead of running (and easily falling), the skilled skier can leave the ground at 25 to 30 mph with relative ease.
The tiny Woopy-Jump flying wing ski-glider looks like a lot of fun!
The pilot hangs from a very simple harness attached to the CG, and the two overhead handles allow for control thru weight shift. From what I see in the video, it looks pretty controllable - and a ton-o-fun! One thing is sure tho, a non-pilot could easily become non-living in one of these things!
For portability, the wing packs up very small into a backpack, and set-up is pretty quick and easy. I'm not sure why but there doesn't seem to be much info available on the Woopy-Jump here in the USA. I didn't look very hard, but I didn't find any info on how much they cost and if there is a US distributor. Foreign distributors are listed on the Woopy-Jump website. I am intrigued enough to look a little deeper... I let you know if I find anything.
Lastly, here are a couple pix of the 1930's era Arup for basic shape comparison. More info to come on this unique critter later.
Various versions of the unique Arup aircraft - only a handful were built
Reader Comments (4)
When you fly it you sit on a ...um...Whoopy cushion ?
What is the price???
¿¿¿Cuál es el precio???
Where can you buy a woopy Jump and around what price USD?