In this instalment of Behind the Design, we talk to designer Ken Winner and delve deep into the new design and technical features on the latest Duotone UNIT WING.
In this instalment of Behind the Design, we talk to designer Ken Winner and delve deep into the new design and technical features on the latest Duotone UNIT WING.
We covered shape and materials, were there any other technical changes to the design?
One of the technical changes we’ve made to the Unit is we have given the canopy panels a spanwise orientation so that the warp threads, which are the strongest in the cloth, are aligned with the loads through the canopy. This allows the canopy to retain its shape through gusts and lulls which provides better stability and easier handling.
Alongside the drift and jumping performance, the team riders have commented that they have felt the Unit to be an overall stiffer and more responsive previous model. Have the materials remained the same for the new Unit?
One point of substantial similarity between the previous Unit and the new one is using Dacron in the leading edge, but one difference is the Dacron in the panels towards the centre is a heavier, stiffer Dacron, which means at the point of the highest bending loads we have Dacron with a higher resistance to bending loads, which turns out to be quite a lot stiffer in the most important place where it needs to be stiffer.