Fliegen begeisterte mich schon seit frueher Kindheit. Als Junge blaetterte ich oft im Brockhaus, wo mich die Flugapparate von Lilienthal am meisten faszinierten. Auf dem steilen Wiesenhang in Berchtesgaden hinter unserem Haus wollte ich auch solche Fluege versuchen. Doch leider gab es in den Nachkriegsjahren nicht das geeignete Material. Fuer den Bau eines Flugapparates sammelte ich daher Holzleisten und Stoff. Skifahren, Segeln und Fliegen waren meine liebsten Hobbies. Alle drei Sportarten habe ich intensiv betrieben: Skifahren und Skitouren in den Bergen, Segeln auf Windsurfer, Jollen und Yachten und Fliegen in Segelflugzeugen und mit Drachen. Mein Traum war es, alles miteinander zu verbinden und gleichzeitig zu tun.

Im Laufe von 25 Jahren gelang es mir tatsaechlich, ein Sportgeraet zu entwickeln, mit dem man auf Skiern bergauf segeln und fliegen kann - den sogenannten SKYWING. Seit 1960 hat mir mein Bruder Udo sehr geholfen. Er arbeitete damals in Kalifornien bei der NASA. Unsere Entwicklungen haben am Anfang vom UPHILL RACER zum KITE SAILING und dann zum PARAGLIDING gefuehrt - beides rapid wachsende Sportarten in den Neunziger Jahren. Allerdings begann der Boom vom KITE SAILING erst, als PARAGLIDING schon laengst bekannt war - und meine Patente schon abgelaufen waren.
Oft werde ich gefragt, wie ich auf die Idee gekommen bin, mit dem Fallschirm bergauf zu fahren und wie die Entwicklung zum Fliegen war. Oft gibt es bei der Geschichte vom Gleitschirm und Kitesegel fehlerhafte Publikationen w.z.B. in den neuesten Buechern. So wurde ich von Freund/Innen gebeten, diese zu ergaenzen und richtig zu stellen. Bei der heutigen Vielfalt von Buechern und Zeitschriften ist es allerdings eine schwierige Aufgabe, all die Verlage oder Autoren zu benachrichtigen. Aus diesem Grunde haben wir uns entschieden, eine HOMEPAGE mit den wichtigsten Informationen aus Presse, Rundfunk und Fernsehen und eigenem Archiv anzufertigen.

In den Sechziger Jahren entwickelte ich, nach 1-jaehrigem Aufenthalt in den USA das Skisegel, aus dem dann der Uphillracer und Kitesegel wurde. Schwierig war dann die Weiterentwicklung zum Fluggeraet in den Siebziger Jahren. Wegen der hohen Kosten brauchte ich die materielle Unterstuetzung von Firmen. Hierfuer musste ich wiederum Patente anmelden. Trotz vieler Schwierigkeiten gelang es mir, 5 Patente anzumelden.

Since early childhood I was enthused by flying.  As a boy I flipped through the pages of the Brockhaus Almanac, most fascinated by the early flying contraptions of Lilienthal.  I also wanted to try such flights on the steep slope of the meadow behind our house near Berchtesgaden (Bischofswiesen = “Bishop’s Meadows”).  Unfortunately there was a dearth of suitable material in the post World War II years.  Therefore I collected wooden slats and cloth for the construction of a flying apparatus.  Skiing, sailing and flying were my favorite hobbies.  I immersed myself in these sports: skiing and ski-touring in the mountains, sailing on windsurfers, sailboats and yachts, and flying in gliders and with the kite.  It was my dream to combine all these sports and to do them simultaneously.

In the course of 25 years I succeeded, indeed, to develop a sport-device with which one could sail uphill on skis and fly down – the so-called SKYWING.  Since the 1960’s my brother Udo was very helpful.  At that time he worked on NASA satellite projects; thus was able to send me discarded recovery-parachutes after suborbital flight-tests in White Sands, New Mexico.  Our experiments started with the UPHILL RACER, evolved to KITE SAILING and finally peaked with the PARAPENTE.  The latter two sports led to a rapid development in the Nineties. However, the real boom of KITE SAILING started only when PARAGLIDING was well known – and my patents were expired.

I am often asked, what gave me the idea to ski uphill propelled by a parachute and how its use evolved to flying.  Often there are erroneous publications in regard to the history of parapenting and kitesailing, in particular in most recent books.  Thus I was asked by friends to set the record straight.  With the wealth of published information, be it in books, journals or on the web, it is difficult to contact all the publishers, editors and authors to have erroneous claims corrected.  This is the reason that we decided to develop this HOMEPAGE covering important information published in printed media, radio, television and extracted from personal archives.

In the Sixties, after spending one year in the USA, I developed the skisail, which evolved into the Uphill Racer and the kitesail.  The additional development to upgrade the sails to a flying device in the Seventies was difficult. Due to the high cost I needed financial backing from industry.  For this purpose I had to file for additional patents.  In spite of this I was able to file for 5 patents.

Transfer of  the prototype of Skywing II (Sept. 2005)

The time for the development was extremely exciting.  No matter how small each advancement, it motivated to push on.  Otherwise there were many difficulties, dangerous situations and frustrating reversals of fortune, which were compensated by successful events.  This way my friend and test-pilot Andrea Kuhn won the first prize in the beginning of the boom of 1985 in the category of flying with the least rate of descent.  At that competition at the COUPE DE SALEVE near Geneve he flew with our SKYWING.

 Today, when watching many colorful parapentes circling in the sky near the mountains, I am deeply moved.  In the beginning even a flight of a few hundred feet made your heart beat faster!  How thrilled is a person now after soaring in thermals for hours.  When kitesurfing we jumped dozens of feet on lakes and oceans even in the Seventies.  How happy are the experts nowadays when also doing jumps and acrobatic gyrations!  I am filled with joy, that I could pass on my enthusiasm, experienced during the first trials, to many youngsters and also to young-at-heart seniors.

My dream has come true – I have reached my goal: With the SKYWING I can sail on snow and glaciers  in all directions like in a sailboat, I can ski uphill, I can lift off, fly, make a landing and can ski uphill again or I can fly non-stop.  In reality these sportive activities branched off.  With the kite (as with the UPHILLRACER) one sails, surf or jumps across the water, beach or meadow; with the PARAPENTE (like in the SKYWING) one only flies.  With the Skywing pivot-able steering mechanism, which I developed, each parapente may be also used for sailing.

When selecting material for this website in the well documented archives it was important for me to show the essential milestones in the development of our parapente.  This was possible due to the reports/literature, photos and movies at that time and due to the description of the experiments.  The prototype of the first Skywing was given to Swiss hangglider pioneer Didier Favre for the Swiss hangglider and parapente museum in Verbier.  Our contribution to the development of the parapente is also described in the Deutsche Museum (German Museum).

Udo Strasilla
 

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