UNE AILE SOUPLE

+ simple
+ performante
+ user friendly

Edouard Kessi

For more than 30 years Edouard has been involved in the development of sailing membranes :

  • Co-owner of the sail loft Voiles Gautier in Switzerland,
  • In the 80’s he developed the first paragliders and worked in the inflated textile industry for more than 15 years with his company called Ailes de K.
  • In 2002  Edouard  Kessi and his partner developed and patented the 3 Di technology,  the black sails for the Alinghi team, now part of the North Sails group.
  • In 2010 he developed the first hard multiply filaments composites  and was the co- founder of North TPT – During these last years he worked on the production of large inflated textile structures such as the inflated hangar of Solar Impulse, which sheltered the ultralight airplane during his world tour.
  • This last 2 years he developed a new concept of inflated wing sails, the idea is to simplify all the rig and sail systems, the easy sailing : www.inflatedwingsails.com
  • Edouard Kessi is an active sailor in monohulls and multihulls. Until today, he is the record holder of the lake Geneva Bol d’Or.

Laurent de Kalbermatten

Laurent was 18 years old when he became the first swiss champion of hanggliding in 1974.  Since that time he got strongly involved in the conception and practice of all kind of flying machines. After completing his master in economy at Lausanne University, Laurent worked as a private banker for some years. Always passionate about flying, he passed his private pilote license in airplane and helicopter. In the 80’s, he decided to change his way of life and founded the company « Ailes de K>> with which he manufactured the first industrial paraglider « la Randonneuse » in partnership with Édouard Kessi. The paragliers Ailde K were distributed worldwide. This is the reason why Laurent is considered the father of the paragliding today. In 1999, he invented a new concept of wing, by marrying an inflated paraglider wing to a horizontal mast. The « Woopy wing » was born.  Until today, it still flies as hangglider, skiglider, ultralight aircraft and even as unmanned aircraft. More recently, two years ago Laurent and Edouard Kessi joined forces again and by sharing their respective flying and sailing competences tested the « Woopy wing » vertically on a yacht. The new concept was a success and led to the birth of the IWS.

Stéphane Fauve

Stéphane initially gratuated from INSA Lyon in France, and completed his master’s degree at the Twisted Flow Wind Tunnel from the University of Auckland, NZ. After working as a sail designer For North Sails New Zealand and North Sails France, he managed the Research and Development departments of North Sails France and Incidence Sails. Specialised in aerodynamic behaviour of sails and soft composite membrane, Stephane has been involved in many offshore racing sail inventories. He is a the leading edge of sail cloth materials, and has been part of the 3Di and DFi sail membrane development.