Revolutionary new design
Developed by Gilo Cardozo and Parajet, the GKN Mission Everest team will be flying paramotors developed specifically for the mission and that have pushed back the limits of extreme-altitude flying.

The team has developed a revolutionary single-rotor, 85 horsepower, four-stroke rotary engine. This is considerably lighter, more fuel efficient, more powerful and more reliable than any other equivalent piston engine.

To enable the engine to function at such extreme altitudes (where the atmospheric pressure and oxygen levels are four times lower than at sea level) a dual-fuel injector system has been developed which senses atmospheric pressure and compensates for the lack of oxygen by injecting precisely measured fuel. 

Though each paramotor will carry four times more fuel than standard, there will still only 22 litres in the fuel tank meaning that fuel economy is of paramount importance. The reason for this limit is simple: the pilots have to be able to run into the air, so the aircraft’s total weight has to be limited. Even with just 22 litres of fuel the overall weight will be 38kg and produces 95 bhp. 

Each paramotor will be equipped with the latest flight information computer which updates five times per second with fuel consumption, engine data, wind speed, wind direction, aircraft airspeed and ground speed, current altitude and climb and sink rates and, crucially, the aircraft’s flight range in any given direction in relation to fuel capacity.