http://www.xcmag.com/news/2009/12/5169/

The Paraglider Manufacturer's Association press release

There a serious reality distortion field at work here. For example:

There are two possible extremes of a wing with a pilot who is
suspended below this wing by lines: A very simple paraglider just consisting in
cloth and lines without any Mylar or other reinforcements and an Atos-type wing
under which the pilot is suspended in a paragliding harness by 2 lines, holding
2 or 3 other lines in his hands to control the wing.

To use the word "Atos" is not the slightest bit creditable. This
is not an extreme example, this is craziness. This is not language used to help
anyone think about the arguments, but rather to stop thinking.

And is "Atos" used because carbon battens are involved? What about if they had
been plastic? And how did we get to d-cell rigid wings without passing through
the "rigid primary structures" already found in flex wings with aluminum tubes
(class 1)?

Somewhere in between these two extremes we had to draw a line,
which defines where a flexible paraglider ends and where another type of
aircraft starts.

Well, now that we've already rhetorically equated having 1.5 mm
thick carbon battens (rods is their term) with "Atos" it just seems natural that
we should run away from them.

The PMA sees the Ozone BBHPP as the first “tentative step over
this line". Soon it will be followed by machines which will be maxing out the
principle of the rigid primary structure. These wings will differ much more from
the principle of the traditional, flexible soft-paraglider than the Ozone proto
is doing it today.

"...maxing out the principle..." Oh, the horror. Paraglider pilots
soon flying "Atoses," and suspended far below them on carbon lines. (And I thought
Felix had spent so many hours trying to put the pilot inside the wing?)

As an editor I hate it when language is used to distort reality rather than to
illuminate it. Apparently the PMA, following the example of some in the reality
distortion end of the media, thinks that this is just a normal way of talking
about such things. There is in fact some useful discussion later in the press
release after we've all been properly scared to death about the future of
paragliding.

Hans Bausenwein, the PMA CEO, tries to explain further the PMA position
here. A number of you may remember Hans from his days as a hang glider
pilot. Tom Payne, a moderator on the Paragliding Forum, responds well just below
Hans' post.