Aviation at the limit
Today’s powergliders are more powerful and robust than ever before – but the GKN Mission Everest team has had to push ultra-light aviation technology to new limits. So, though the paramotors they will use are based on conventional powered paragliders (with a thrust-pack worn on the body while harnessed to a parachute ‘wing’) just about everything else has been painstakingly modified for extreme-altitude flying.

The GKN Mission Everest paramotors carry a revolutionary single rotor, four-stroke rotary engine capable of delivering 85 horsepower (150% more than a conventional two-stroke engine) and with a fuel capacity of 30 litres compared to a standard eight-litre engine. The top speed for a paraglider is normally 35mph but, in the thin Everest air, the GKN Mission Everest machines will fly at up to 100mph. 

Running into the sky
These paramotors require no hill or airstrip for take-off. Instead, the pilots can literally run along flat terrain, taking off in roughly the area of a tennis court, before soaring up into the sky, while applying full thrust from their back-pack engines. In the mountains though, in the thin Himalayan air, the GKN Mission Everest pilots will have the benefit of being able to take-off down the side of a mountain from their Base-Camp. This will help make their take-off, considering the extreme weights they will be carrying and large size of the paragliding wing they are flying, much easier than taking off from the flat. Once airborne and at altitude, they will utilise a special predictive fuel injection system to deliver exactly the correct volume of fuel for any speed or altitude.

The only downside of all these innovations is that the pilots will take to the skies carrying a total weight of around 100kg – peak physical fitness will be required simply to lift the paramotors into a take-off position.