 | |
| Privately held company | |
| Industry | Aerospace |
| Fate | Out of business following founder's death |
| Founded | 1995 |
| Defunct | 2003 |
| Headquarters | Dursley, Gloucestershire , United Kingdom |
Key people | Colin Lark |
| Products | Hang gliders |
Offpiste Aviation Limited (Off The Beaten Track) was a British aircraft manufacturer based in Dursley, Gloucestershire and founded by hang glider competition pilot Colin Lark. The company specialized in the design and manufacture of hang gliders in the form of ready-to-fly aircraft. [1] [2]
The United Kingdom (UK), officially the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, is a sovereign country located off the north-western coast of the European mainland. The United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland, and many smaller islands. Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state, the Republic of Ireland. Apart from this land border, the United Kingdom is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, with the North Sea to the east, the English Channel to the south and the Celtic Sea to the south-west, giving it the 12th-longest coastline in the world. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland. With an area of 242,500 square kilometres (93,600 sq mi), the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world. It is also the 22nd-most populous country, with an estimated 66.0 million inhabitants in 2017.
Dursley is a market town and civil parish in southern Gloucestershire, England, situated almost equidistantly between the cities of Bristol and Gloucester. It is under the northeast flank of Stinchcombe Hill, and about 3 3⁄4 miles (6.0 km) southeast of the River Severn. The town is adjacent to Cam which, though a village, is a slightly larger community in its own right.
Gloucestershire is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn, and the entire Forest of Dean.
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The company was founded in 1995 and went out of business when Lark died of cancer on 8 September 2003. [2] [3] [4] [5]
The company was founded to produce the Discovery series of hang gliders, designed by Bill Pain. The Discovery series are termed Sky Floaters, hang gliders designed for slow, local flying, lightness of weight and ease of handling, over high performance and cross-country capability. The series quickly became the best selling hang glider design in the UK by the mid-2000s. [1] [4]
The Offpiste Discovery is a series of British high-wing, single or two-place, hang gliders that were designed by Bill Pain and produced by Colin Lark's company Offpiste Aviation Limited of Dursley, Gloucestershire. Now out of production, when it was available the series of aircraft were supplied complete and ready-to-fly.
