Background to The Virtual Paraglider Project

Some of you may recall the BHPA’s “Virtual hang-glider” that appeared at Telford and at many outdoor shows around the country. This allowed the pilot to lie in a harness under a real hang-glider, put on a head mounted display glasses, and using software from a game, “fly” around an island trying to use the visible thermals. It was very successful in promoting the sport, and in gaining many thousands of pounds worth of free stand space at exhibitions up and down the country. The drawbacks were that the majority of schools who ran the exhibit and needed promotion were (and still are) predominantly interested in paragliding. There were attempts to produce a virtual paraglider, but unfortunately the time, effort and skills needed meant that it proved a big challenge for the volunteers who kindly offered their time. In 2006 Ian Currer of Northern Paragliding Ltd (together with Andy Shaw from Green Dragons and the late Dick Long - the BHPA treasurer) decided to tackle the project again. With help from the Business link “Knowledge Rich” programme that puts academics and businesses in touch with each other for research and development projects, Ian put together a proposal and started visiting universities in the North East. It soon became clear that a good simulator was definitely possible but very expensive (some quotes exceeding £30K). Dr Paul Chapman from Hull university was one of those leading a research group (SimVis) who liked the look of the project. Paul also has a skydiving license and was interested both in developing simulators and learning to paraglide himself so he agreed to invest much of his own time and expertise in the development. Paul along with James Ward (a Research Fellow in Computer Science) have been the principal developers of the paragliding simulator. A deal was struck in which Dick Long committed the BHPA to buying the first production system, and in doing so laid the financial foundations for this project. Northern Paragliding would pay for and develop the hardware and software, in conjunction with Hull university’s Computer Science Department. Mr Ian Currer. Northern Paragliding Ltd.

 

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