Skywing and the girls of Kitzbühel

Carmen von Garnier (top left and below) looking up. On the mountain via parachute in Kitz - "crazy place, action non-stop, I like it" and as a soon-to-be pop star ("freaked-out stuff) on her way to the top ten in Munich.

Playboy, Dezember 1982






AND THAT's HOW IT ALL BEGAN:
Schweizer Illustrierte, 8.11.76

Strasilla made his first experiments with a parachute and a bike in Texas (1960)

STERN, 1976, PARTICULARS

Dieter Strasilla, 33, graduate chemist from Freiburg has invented "parachute sailing on skies" (Strasilla). Thanks to the new type of sport skiers can have themselves pulled along the trail, especially uphill and also against the wind if going zigzag. The technique demands skiing skills and stability on the slats. Experts can also risk capers if they know how to safely touch down. When there is no snow in our region, Strasilla does his training in the high mountains of Switzerland, mostly at 3240m high Titlis.

At Monte Rosa close to Zermatt where other people set speed records in downhill skiing, the roving inventor has established a record in going uphill: "I did this route uphill with my brother Udo in tow - in three minutes! A mountaineer needs an hour when he climbs
up."

SPIEGEL 1976, PRISM

SKISPORTS WITH A PARACHUTE AND A PROPELLER

The Soviets try engine power. A winter sports athlete from West Germany uses the power of the wind. Aviation accessory is supposed to make skiers faster in any case. Allegedly, the backpack motor (which drives an airscrew) is able to push a cross-country-skier across flat terrain with a speed of up to 80 km/h. In contrast, Dieter Strasilla from Freiburg has himself pulled uphill by a special parachute. The chute (developed by NASA) has a sophisticated systems of shroud lines and steering tethers. Strasilla managed to cross 27 km long Aletsch Glacier which stretches up to Jungfraujoch and went up the skislope at Breithornplateau in three minutes - regular time for the ascent: one hour.

WHITE STONE IN THE HISTORY OF PARAGLIDERS
by Francois Perraudin

Oberengadin in the winter of 1972/73: A spectacular skier is sailing back and forth on Lake Maloja, pulled by a round parachute-like sail. A whistling wind is going though the fabric. A cross-country skier is running after the first guy like a madman. After many traverse rides the excited skisailor finally comes to a stop. That winterday an amazing tandem is created: there is 30 year old chemist Dr. Dieter Strasilla at the sail and there is Andrea Kuhn from Engadin, his future test pilot, only 17 years old at the time and still on cross-country skis.

20 years later I'm sitting with the two of them at Philippe Bernard's (a.k.a. Super Max's) place in Verbier. Yesterday we watched "Headwind", a poetic portrayal of the first "crazy flyer" by Palino. We had been invited by Didier Favre, another kite artist and pioneer of Cap 444. I never had a stronger feeling than on this weekend, unter the wings of Otto Lilienthal's guardian angel, that the process of development does not only need scientists, but also these kind of connoisseurs of life to create its "white stones".

Dieter Strasilla and Andrea Kuhn came here especially to give an old chute to Didier Favre, founder of the New Swiss Museum of Free Flight. The soft fabric was made in 1973 and when Andrea tells be about his own age, I know what this is all about: "36, but actually I'm as old as paragliding, so I'm 20" Paragliding, the easy way of gliding with the help of coated, slightly tighter fabric was not invented in the French town of Mieussy in 1985 as it is often stated in professional journals. Strictly speaking, Dieter Strasilla and Andrea Kuhn do not demand to be recognised as "the fathers of paragliding". They would just like to complete its history with their contribution. When both pioneers hoist their old chute in the dynamic upwind of Croix de Coeur the next morning, when they perform their capers in front of modern paragliders who are completly amazed, and when Dieter does two flights reaching 400m, I am seized by the fever of a hobby historian.


DR. STRASILLA STARTS WINDSAILING IN 1961

Long before he meets Andrea Kuhn Dieter Strasilla is concerned with windsailing. Already in 1961 he sails up the sand dunes of the White Sands Desert in New Mexico with the help of the pulling force of a round parachute device he has constructed himself. And there is already the secret idea of being able to fly down one day. Back in Europe in 1964, he tries using skies. He is pulled up snow covered slopes in traverse by the amazing power of the wind. His brother Udo who is a phycicist at NASA sends him two satellite recovery parachutes. Unfortuately they proof to be too shiftless and heavy. Every summer Strasilla sketches new designs, cuts and sews new chutes, impatiently waiting for the test runs in wintertime. Step by step the sail changes from a round design to a flat design derived from that of the new mattress parachute, from a soft and light fabric to a coated, tighter one. In 1965 he uses spinnaker fabric. During the winter test runs the upwind on the slopes sometimes gets strong enough to allow for small jumps. Having just met his first student Andrea Kuhn, Strasialla creates the "9 cell Skywing" in 1973. Andrea piloted this model once again for Gleitschschirm on this golden weekend in June 1993. It is a foursquare chute with a supposed glide ratio of 1/2,5 to 1/3 and a size of 32m2; "Skywing" it is called; "sky" to suggest flying, "wing" to suggest sailing.



ANDREA KUHN'S CURRENT FAVORITE TOOL

Today the name is connected to Andrea's favorite tool, the Skywing system. An aluminum rod with central suspension that allows the chute to always turn in the wind regardless of the movements of the pilot. This is a major advantage when facing strong winds.

So what happened back then when the upwind got so strong that the chute drove the pilot high up into the air when skisailing? At the beginning, the built-in release system was used for resasons of security. Gradually, the two pioneers dared to go higher and stay up in the air for a longer period, though. A safety rope connected them to the ground; eventually this last connecting link disappeared (body rope?). The two pioneers did not want to go public with their experiments they certainly did not think about commercializing their products: If the capers were performed too high above the ground the Federal Agency of Aviation could have imposed a strict ban.

Chemist Strasilla did think about the protection of his inventions, though. He applied for a patent at the patent office in Munich five times; among other things he got a patent for his 1976 round parachute. In the meantime Andrea Kuhn had already received the 11 cell model, a surface prototype built by Dieter: it was 40 m2 in size and had a reliable glide ratio of 1/3. As a precaution, this chute was labelled a skysailing device in 1978: "Flying was more of a bonus and we were afraid of a ban on flying" Strasilla remembers. Those who have already seen Kuhn's peculiar performance on a screen know that the bonus feature would soon become the main feature.


AN IMPRESSIVE LIST OF ADVENTURES

In 1976 Dieter Strasilla and Andrea Kuhn find an ideal training slop high up in the mountains: the peak of Piz Corvatsch, 3451 a.s.l., easily accessible by cable car. Gradually, they develop a dynamic launch off the slope which is performed going uphill in traverse as soon as the wind is strong enough. In the evening, Strasialla and Kuhn diligently analyze the steepness of the mountain on a map: Will a glide ratio of 1/3 be enough to fly in the direction of Val Roseg? Dieter Strasilla chooses practical experience over theory. One day he takes off: barely avoiding the ledge, not quite reaching the bottom of the valley. The performance of Andrea's parachute is not suffient. He always receives the smaller, worn out chutes from Dieter. Very soon Andrea's flying skills will compensate for the disadvantage in material, though, and when Dieter flies from the peak of Piz Corvatsch towards Sils, Andrea is with him: 1700m difference in altitude! Is there a paraglider who has not dreamed about a high altitude flight like this in the middle of the high mountains?



THE FISH IS HOOKED

Dieter Strasilla subsequently combines his art of sailing uphill with the ecstacy of flying down. In 1980, he sails up Aletsch Glacier to Jungfraujoch on skis, then takes off in the direction of the Bernese Oberland. The next destination is located in France. In 1981, he sails up Vallee Blanche, waits for a favorable wind direction on the peak of Aiguille du Midi and flies towards Chamonix the next day. The times of secretive experiments away from the public eye are over: Famous magazines like "Die Schweizer Illustrierte", "Bunte" oder "Paris Match" do reports on the daredevil gliding and flying artists. Dieter and Andrea try to commercialize their art: Andrea Kuhn has a go at being a flight instructor in his windsurfing school in Oberengadin. Dieter Strasilla has his chutes produced in Italy, starting in 1981. Few people are interested in the gear, though. Apparently, the moment the new type of sport is able to find general approval has not yet come. In 1984, Hugo Stamm of the "Schweizerischer Tagesanzeiger" contacts the Federal Agengy Of Aviation asking them if they had already heard about the new flying device. Fritz Bigler, inspector for engingeinoperative flight, has a negative answer. He expects the new chute to be covered by the hang-glider regulations, though and points out it would be easiest if the paragliding schools joined the Swiss Hang-Glider Association.



THE CONNECTION TO OUR YOUNG HISTORY OF PARAGLIDING

The pioneers have played their part, soon paragliding is a public thing - in France. This country has always shown a love for new types of sport. Strasilla writes: "France, that's where people love innovations and where everything that is not prohibited is permitted. In Germany, in contrast, everything that is not permitted is prohibited." And when Andrea Kuhn wins a duration flight at the Saleve near Geneva, when he is able to compare the performance of this old '78 chute to Laurent de Kalbermatten's brandnew "Randonneuse", we have managed to make the connection to our young history of paragliding. I personally put the pen down on the table and reach for the most advanced of the present to once again feel the lightness of being in its most simple way.

19 GLEITSCHIRM

AKROBATICS



FISCHER MAGAZIN

There is a new answer to the old controversial question wether flying or skiing is more beautiful: It is skiflying. If climbing waterfalls is the latest challenge for alpinists, skisailing is the latest one for skiacrobats. For his new type of sport, "ski sailing and flying" German adventurer Dieter Strasilla from Weil am Rhein is looking for super light skis that are about 2m in length and come with bindings that are easy to open when one is dangling up in the air. "When launching off frozen peaks and touching down in the valley I want to drop them with a mini parachute", Strasilla says in a written inquiry. The air composite core, the leightweight core by Fischer, is likely to easily meet this wish. Skiing, flying - or both at the same time.

Photo by Klaus Hertwig





CIBA GEIGY JOURNAL, 03/1986

He flies through the air with the greatest of ease It's called para-ski-sailing, and Dieter Strasilla of Weil am Rhein near Basel takes to the air on his patented Sky Wing. A vital component of the buoyant appendage is the canopy release, consisting of a UreolÆ foam core and metal parts held together without bolts or rivets by carbon and glass fibres laid up with Araldite epoxy. The canopy release links a 40-square-metre sports parachute to a harness and can support loads of more than two metric tons. The release acts simultaneously as a pivot joint, steering rod, suspension line snap hook, and quick-release safety. It positions all controls at convenient chest level, enabling a skier to sail uphill and fly downhill. At the Premiere Coupe de Finesse parachute jumping competitions held at Saleve last March, Andrea Kuhn won the drop rate contest using a Sky Wing canopy. Mr. Kuhn, who has achieved speeds in excess of 100 km/h (60 mph) on the level, is operating the first Swiss para-ski-sailing school in Sils Maria, in the Grisons. It's a summer sport too: waterskiers can per- form similar up-and-down feats.

Ciba Geigy Journal 3/86
Printed in Switzerland



GLEITSCHIRM 9, September 1992

Table of contents After many traverse rides the excited skisailor finally comes to a stop. That winterday an amazing tandem is created: there is 30 year old chemist Dr. Dieter Strasilla at the sail and there is Andrea Kuhn from Engadin, his future test pilot, only 17 years old at the time and still on cross-country skis. It was Dr. Dieter Strasilla and Andrea Kuhn. In 1973 the 9-cell Skywing is created. Recently, Andrea Kuhn flew the golden wing again for 'Gleitschirm'. A unique photo report.

HOMME OISEAU

La mode du paraski va atteindre les Sommets francais

Le skieur d¥espace est un homme-oiseau Avec le paraski, les skieurs ont trouve le plus fantastique des remonte-pentes:gratuit, silencieux et capable, au gre du vent, de vous emmener vers les plus inaccessibles sommets d¥ou ils pourront alors senvoler.

Nouveau : les skieur¥s de l¥espace, Dieter et Udo Strasilla PLUS l'aeronautique fait de progres - des jets supersoniques a la navette spatiale - plus de petits malins s'ingenient a simplifier a l'extreme les regles d'un jeu vieux comme le monde : voler. L'homme-oiseau existe! Peut-etre l'avez- vous meme rencontre au hasard des pentes alpines autrichiennes ou helvetiques ou de celles toul aussi vertigineuses des Rocheuses, aux Etats-Unis. En 1985, l'homme-oi-seau fait du paraski. Une idee un peu folle, nee de la rencontre de jeunes Europeens et d¥un Californien. Folie et paradoxale : pourquoi ne pas utiliser le parachute pour... monter au ciel plutot que pour en descendre? Ajoutez une paire de skis aux pieds et voila le remonte-pente individuel, une aile volante quioffre aux skieurs la plus fantastique occasion de decouvrir la montagne l hiver ensautant d'une vallee a l'autre. Et comme rien ne refrenait leur imagination. les inventeurs sont alles jusqu'a concevoir le paraski comme un sport combine hiver-ete. Bien sur, tous les terrains ne s'y pretent pas. Indispensable : le champ de neige doit se trouver a proximite d'un plan d'eau, lac, mer ou ocean. Ces conditions remplies, laissez-vous porter. monoski aux pieds, vers les sommets dans la poudreuse, envolez-vous avant de vous poser sur les flots pour une seance de ski nautique ou le glissement de l'air dans la voilure remplace agreablement le vrombissement d'un moteur de hors-bord. Decidement, les skieurs de l'espace n'ont pas froid aux yeux. La moindre des choses lorsqu'on a decide, une fois pour toutes. de negliger les flocons au profit de l'ivresse ...

Region Parisienne, T. CHIMAY, Mars 85