Do canopy designs evolve?

[DanBoyle 0]

Do canopy makers tweak their designs without changing the name? Is a Sabre2 built in 2002 the same as one built in 2010?

[PhreeZone 20]

Only canopy that ever received major changes in its life with out a rename was the Jedei from Airtime Designs. PD is very consistent on their canopy designs and the same design for a canopy is used forever based on the info that PD has put out.

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And tomorrow is a mystery

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[AggieDave 6]

Yes, no, maybe and depends.

For instance, the original Sabre2 had a slightly different lineset than the ones sold now. The new lineset is a little more stable and a little less aggressively trimmed. At least according to the folks at PD that I had talked to.

As for other manufactures, well, you would need a flow chart, some powerpoint slides and possibly a slide rule to figure out all the changes made to the Triathlon over its last 60 years of manufacturing. Ok, that's a joke, but in all seriousness, that is a good example of a manufacture that continually tweaked the line trim.

Canopy designs evolve, through prototypes and testing. There is a lineage from the Jonathan to the Katana, for example.

Then there are specialty made canopies, like the JVX, in which literally every one made is slightly different due to user choices and design modifications over time.

--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

[dragon2 2]

Usually the canopies are the same over time. Some however are tweaked a bit continuously notably hand-built ones like the Jedei, get a change of fabric like the Triathlon, get changed due to a safety issue like the Crossfire or get a lineset change like the Triathlon, or they may behave a bit different if they're made in multiple locations like the Safire.

Still, every canopy is different, and buying a canopy you have not jumped is not the smartest thing to do if you can avoid it, as it may open/fly/land a bit different than you expected.

ciel bleu,
Saskia

[pchapman 279]

Good question. Generally canopy designs are fairly fixed, but there are little tweaks made.

Companies seem to be very poor in informing the public about these things. You can't just go to their web site and browse a list of modifications and configurations by date or serial number.

If the company feels they have a significantly changed product, they'll rename it. E.g., Crossfire 2. Still, a Crossfire 2 is a modification of a Crossfire (1) (right?)[EDIT: No, it seems to have a fundamentally different. But that gets at the whole point of the original poster!].
And if you had a Crossfire 1, you'd want to be sure it was in post-modification configuration, because there were accidents with the earlier configuration.

On the other hand, a Sabre 2 is a ground-up new canopy, which is only related to the Sabre 1 in applying to a very vaguely similar market niche.

One canopy design that has been tweaked over the years has been the Raven reserve. At least there are sub-designation changes on the label, so one can see that a canopy is a Raven 150Maa for example, rather than a 150g. Riggers will know of some of the major changes (e.g., the saga of the "dash M"), but often not know what the smaller changes are.

PD canopies have indeed had line trim changes. E.g., comparing my charts for the Sabre 150, for 2003 vs. Revision C in 2007, the upper steering cascades are 5/8" longer, 'A' lines are 1/2" shorter, 'D' lines relative to the 'A' lines are 1/4" shorter, etc.

These are small tweaks that I'd bet most people don't know about. So you don't get anyone arguing at the fire pit whether they prefer the 2003 trim to the 2007 trim. (Besides, with Spectra lines, trims can easily be off an inch or more after a bunch of use.)

The Triathlon is up to brake line configuration 5.0 or something like that. I personally have no idea what versions 1 to 3 were like, but the change from 4 to 5 is well known among Tri jumpers.

Sometimes a canopy and its lines might not change, but the slider might. I have an Icarus Extreme FX canopy, where there have been three different slider sizes over the years that I know of.

Over the time that stainless steel grommets have been used in sliders, better, lighter grommets have become available to the industry. The newer grommets just start getting used in the production line without any designation change known to the public.

A PD canopy like the Sabre (1) also has an 'old size' slider, and a 'new size' bigger slider that has been used for many years now.

Somewhat related to evolution but also partially a separate matter is the overall configuration. You could have a CRW canopy with the Demo line or the Rotation lines, or a canopy with different levels of CRW options, or a new canopy with the ZPX fabric option rather than ZP.

A big shakeup at one company resulted in a different fabric supplier being used, so people still talk about the nice tacky Gelvenor fabric on earlier Triathlons compared to the slicker stuff now.

More changes tend to happen where the canopy choice is important for competition. So the competitive canopy pilots will keep on showing up with lines with some different coating (& coating colour) on them. Or, the sail fabric option on a swoop canopy will consist of a rather different fabric coating between different years. But there's no designation change on labels as was the case with the Raven reserve.

Those parts that can be changed, like lines & sliders, may of course have been upgraded on a particular canopy by the owner, so that's another configuration change.

Hope this helps in understanding what a wide range of "tweaking" of canopies exists, and how knowledge about it isn't easy to come by without talking to those who are in the know.

[virgin-burner 1]

Quote

Usually the canopies are the same over time. Some however are tweaked a bit continuously notably hand-built ones like the Jedei, get a change of fabric like the Triathlon, get changed due to a safety issue like the Crossfire or get a lineset change like the Triathlon, or they may behave a bit different if they're made in multiple locations like the Safire.

Still, every canopy is different, and buying a canopy you have not jumped is not the smartest thing to do if you can avoid it, as it may open/fly/land a bit different than you expected.

the safire2 made by NZ-aerosports is AWESOME!!!

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-Hunter S. Thompson
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-Yoda

[yeyo 1]

Quote

The Triathlon is up to brake line configuration 5.0 or something like that. I personally have no idea what versions 1 to 3 were like, but the change from 4 to 5 is well known among Tri jumpers.

My understanding is that there were no versions 1-3...
The 2 different line sets are the original configuration and the new version introduced in 2005, therefor the name V.05 lineset.
Theres a good chance Im wrong, but thats how I think it goes

HISPA #93
DS #419.5

[billvon 3,031]

>Do canopy makers tweak their designs without changing the name?

Yes. The most common things to change are line trim and slider size, but occasionally the wing itself changes. I believe the Sabre2 wing incorporated a fix for an early turns-on-opening problem but I never heard any details about that.