Flying the Mosquito
Wind Drifter
Richard

FLPHG Manufacturers

Current Manufacturers

Manufacturing Power Harnesses is apparently a hard business in which to make a living, as the turnover is quite high. There are more brands that are out of business, or have stopped production, than are currently being made. This is the list of those that are currently active

Toni Roth - E-Lift and Power-Lift

A new German entry into the flphg market. Website is mostly in German, with a number of videos. It uses a number of innovative design ideas and an EOS 100 engine which should provide more power than the Radne. They also offer an electric model and a carbon trike.

Toni Roth - E-Lift & Power-Lift


Other Electric Options

There is currently a great deal of interest in electric powered Flphg, but these efforts are less commercial than individual. Some resources:
Electric Harness Info
Facebook e-powered hang glider group
Facebook FLPHG group
Video - how E-help is made by Reidar Berntsen.


Mosquito

The original Swedish motorized harness, on the market since the late 1980's. The original models had old Keller style harnesses and 10hp motors. The power was later increased to 15hp, although they stayed with the old harness style until around 2000. This allowed many other manufacturer's to get into the market, as the harness style on the original Mosquito was quite cumbersome. Then they released the NRG model which was greatly improved and has put it at least even with, if not ahead, of much of the competition. It is front opening with snap-buckles for the chest and leg loops, and the controls have been stream-lined and made more easily accessible. There is a folding prop option and there are several harness sizes available.

http://www.swedishaerosport.se
USA Mosquito Dealer: Blue Sky Hang Gliding


Wasp

A British variation on the Mosquito. It originally came on the market while the Mosquito was still using the old style harness, and improved upon that with an easy front entry. The harness can be custom made to your dimensions, and is also offered as a kit to modify older Mosquitos - something worth considering if you have an older Mosquito (or find a really good deal on one).

This is a first class quality product, and they are continuing to develop the unit and add options. They currently offer two models:

The Vittorazi engine was also used by the Hidden Mountain X1 harness, which was very useful for heavier pilots and higher altitudes. Now that the X1 is no longer produced, the Venom is the only flphg unit that offers the Vittorazi engine

http://www.waspsystems.co.uk/ (website may not be active)


Zenon by SkyGear

This harness comes from Cyprus. The unique feature of the Zenon is that the harness and power plant are separate pieces. You can free fly using just the harness, or attach the motor unit to be able to fly with power. This also allows more convenient transportation, as the two pieces will fit in places (trunk, back seat) that a one-piece flphg unit would not fit.

http://skygear.com


Fillo (Czech)

This is a relatively new FLPHG manufacturer, in the Czech Republic. The web site is mostly in Czech, but some pages have an English version.

http://www.fillo.cz/home-page/


Build Your Own

A number of pilots have built their own flphg units. If you have done so, or know of someone else who has done so, and you/they are willing to provide information that may assist others, I will be happy to provide a link to it here. Also, links to engines, props, other resources to build your own or repair existing units that are no longer supported

Wes Adams had produced a series of YouTube videos describing his building experiences:
Wes Adams - Building a flphg - Part 1
Wes Adams - Building a flphg - Part 2
Wes Adams - Building a flphg - Part 3
Wes Adams - Building a flphg - Part 4
Wes Adams - Building a flphg - Part 5


Radne

Radne produces lightweight 2-cycle engines. The 120cc model is used by all of the power harness manufacturers listed above. You can get parts lists and numbers, specs, owner's manuals and other information from their web site. The site has been recently (as of 6/2003) updated and now offers encryption for secure ordering: https://www.radne.com/Store
A scan of the complete engine manual has been scanned and put in Adobe PDF format: Radne 120 Engine Manual It contains engine diagrams, parts lists, and maintenance recommendations.
The diagram in the manual is for the pull-start version of the engine - here is the Electric Start Engine Diagram

Bolly Props

The Bolly folding prop was first introduced on Airtime's Explorer power harness. It's performance characteristics and quality caused it to be adapted to many other flphg units as well. Replacement blades (but not hubs) can still be obtained direct from Bolly

Out of Production

These are flphg units no longer in production and no longer have an active web page. The links below are the last known links for historical reference. Quite often, useful information can still be found by using the Wayback Web Archive Enter the outdated URL in the search field, and it will show dates for which a copy was archived. I have recovered pages that have been gone for 15 years or more.

Doodlebug

THE DOODLEBUG IS OUT OF PRODUCTION AND LIKELY WILL NOT RETURN. From the manufacturer (April 2013):
We have ceased production on the Doodle Bug. It is sad but, we have to be able to sell enough to justify keeping stock of the components. We mainly manufacture the Dragon range of aircraft and sell Skyranger and Air Creation ultralights, slightly better market although it is still very hard to make a living.

This is a British supine version of the powered harness and the only harness made that does not use the prone flying position. The pilot flies inside of the control bar, similar to the old “suprone” harnesses. There are a number of enthusiastic owners of this model, who claim it is more comfortable for extended flights, and there seem to be a fair number already in use, so they are relatively easy to find in the used market.

This is the OUTDATED LINK: http://www.flylight.co.uk/footlaunched/index.htm Flylight remains in business, but in other ventures.

This is a link to a pdf copy of the DoodleBug Manual


Explorer LD

Originally an Australian copy of the original Mosquito, Airtime Products went on to develop an improved LD model. This was a popular unit and there are often found in the used market. The Explorer model introduced the Bolly prop, which has often been adapted to other units.
This is an OUTDATED LINK: http://www.airtimeproducts.com.au/

This link is for a pdf copy of the original model Explorer Manual
If anyone has a copy of the LD manual, I would be happy to host a copy here.


X1 by Hidden Mountain

This was a relatively recent entry to the flphg world. Dave Little and Ken Osage were thinking "outside the box" and developed a powered harness from scratch, with a different power (Vittorazi) plant and other modifications. It demonstrated significant improvements in power and climb performance, and was the only unit to be made in the USA. It also brought flphg capabilities to pilots living at higher altitudes than was possible with the Radne powerplant.

Only a few units were made, and seldom remain on the market for long if one becomes available. This is the OUTDATED LINK, left for historical reference: http://www.hiddenmt.com


Raven

The Raven was originally an Italian model, and later came under German ownership. It has also been sold with the name DV8. It used the same Radne engine as all the others, but they claimed higher power and thrust values because of a special exhaust system and other mods.

The last known link, which has not worked for quite a few years: http://www.powerplanes.com/raven.html

This is a link to a pdf copy of the Raven Owners Manual


Booster

The Booster was relatively early on the scene, another British variation of the Mosquito that was produced by Pegasus Aviation. It was one of the first to offer a folding prop, had wheels instead of skids, and a chain drive instead of a belt. But the most notable feature was a hard shell portion of the harness which made it possible to adapt some free flight harnesses to work with it.

This was the original link (dead for at least a decade now):
http://www.pegasusaviation.co.uk/Pegasus/Hang_Gliders/Power_units/Booster_Mk_2.htm

After the Booster had been out of production for a couple of years, there was an attempt to revive it. According to an email I received, "two enthusiastic British guys Simon and Neil have taken the Solar Wings Booster activities into their own hands. For the latest info see http://www.soarfoot.com".
That link remained active for awhile, but it too has since become a part of history

This is a pdf copy of the Mark 1 Owner's Manual

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(updated March 1, 2024)