The tenth edition of the Red Bull X-Alps begins on June 20^th, in Salzburg Austria.

Ozone is proud to support the following athletes with what we think is the most cutting edge, and definitely the lightest, equipment in the race: Benoit Outters, Laurie Génovese, Yael Margelisch, Maxime Pinot, Michael Gierlach, and Cody Mittanck. 

Some of these pilots will be flying the Zeolite XD, which weighs in at an incredible 2450 grams. The F*Race harness weighs just 1100 grams, and the Ozone Angel SQ comes in at just 870 grams. In all, the full kit weighs less than 5kg which will be an essential advantage during the inevitable, and arduous, running portions of the race.

Here’s a few more details on the Zeolite XD from the Ozone R&D team:

“The idea for this wing was to use the tried and tested Zeolite as a basis to test new ultralight materials for the top and bottom surface.

The internal structure (ribs and diagnoals) remains unchanged. For the top surface, we used a new fabric developed by Porcher Sport, the Skytex21. It is based on very fine 6.6 nylon weave and still offers respectable characteristics with regards to breaking load and deformation.

The bottom surface is made with one of the lightest materials available, a PU/Dyneema composite from DSM. It weighs an impressive 13g/m² and still has more than enough strength and stability for the lower surface of a wing, as long as the load on the anchor points is correctly distributed.

We first carried out many structural, ageing and dimensional stability tests. We also tried various sowing and glueing techniques and developed a specific manufacturing process for the gliders. The certification procedure, both for load- and flight tests, went very well especially given the tight deadlines.

Benoît Outters helped us for the final set-up of the wing and Maxime Pinot demonstrated that it does the job by winning the Bornes to Fly race with it. The formidable arena of the X-Alps is our next testing ground with flights in all possible conditions.”

Due to the very high cost of the materials and the complexity of the manufacturing process, the Zeolite XD in its present form will not be available on the market. However, we will use it a basis for future developments as we continue with our research efforts into ultralight equipment.

We wish all of the athletes in the race a safe event!

Cheers from all the Ozone Team