What does the 2025 World Championship-winning Miniplane LR look like?
What's so special about it?
We often hear our customers say: “I wonder what modifications you made to that paramotor to achieve that result”.
You will be surprised to know that the Miniplane LR is perfectly standard, with accessories that anyone can find in our shop, as required by the race regulations.
We want to list here the special features we used and we’ll help ourselves with some numbers.
Andrea landing after the 4 hour 44 minutes flight on the pure economy task
The paramotor is the Miniplane LR 160 with a TOP80 engine.
– 160 is the diameter of the propeller cage in cm.
– 80 is the engine displacement in cubic centimeters.
– The propeller diameter is 150 cm, a two-blade propeller built by Helix. This propeller is slightly larger than the one used in previous competitions, and was chosen after testing revealed better thrust even at high speeds. With this solution, Andrea can still climb at about 0.3 m/s at the maximum speed achievable with the Warp3 wing, which is near to 75 km/h.
– For the first time, a folding propeller was used in competition. The competition regulations allow for propeller changes for different tasks.
In the pure economy task (maximum flight time with limited fuel, using thermals), where the engine is frequently shut down, the use of this solution was crucial,
and helped achieve a flight time of 4 hours and 44 minutes with 1.5 kg of fuel, a record
– to make the most of the characteristics of the large propeller and the folding one, the reduction gear was equipped with a brake operated by hand in the economy and precision landing tasks.
This item, together with the folding propeller, will be put on sale as soon as the trial period ends.
– To manage such a “big” propeller, a gearbox with an high reduction ratio was used to ensure it rotates at the correct rpm.
The increased torque required increased frame compensation, obtained with a small accessory mounted on the ABM arm.
– the total in flight weight (TOW) approximately 120 kg.
-The Miniplane LR (Long Range), as you can read on other pages, can fly very long distances, but in this competition very long flights were not planned. The task catalog called for flights of a maximum of 2 hours, therefore we chose to mount our small fuel tank of “only” 11 liters. It was never necessary to fill it completely and it always returned with ample safety fuel even during full-speed flights.
– the paraglider, used for the first time in competition, is the Dudek Warp3, 18 square meters, to which Andrea made small modifications to the handle control lines, which do not affect the homologation.
We are the official Dudek importer in Italy.
– As you can see from the first photo, a front-mounted rescue parachute from our catalog was used. It was mounted in a higher position to allow for the use of the for navigation tasks maps.
WHAT ABOUT THE ENGINE ?
It’s our untiring, inimitable, reliabe, evergreen TOP80 !
nothing new – everything new
developed over 20 years of experience, still valid and still super-competitive with all the upgrades that are also applied to the production engines.
The appearance of the engine has not changed much from the first drawings in 1995, but the substance has, all the components have been reviewed and improved over the years to obtain the best results.
– The bowl carburetor is the solution we have been using in competitions for decades, new calibrations and important modifications have made this solution increasingly effective, so much so that in recent versions there is no longer a power gap compared to the more known larger diaphragm carburetors, maintaining his advantages in smoothness and low consumption.
-As you can see from the photos, for those who don’t know, the bottle next to the pilot’s head is a “must have ” for competition paramotors, it is the most effective way to accurately read the amount of fuel remaining, especially in economy , but also in navigation tasks. comp bottle
-The TOP80’s starting characteristics have recently been improved, making it easier to start in flight, a very important feature for numerous restarts in thermal flights.
One of the improvements is the à la Carnet rubber handle
-To facilitate starting in difficult conditions, especially early in the morning with low temperatures and high humidity, a remote choke handle has been added, easily accessible to the pilot.
-a little trick Andrea wanted for his personal paramotor is this attachment of the speedbar’s return pulleys. He considered it essential for achieving the best balance at all speeds.
– the net on this special machine, was made with a thinner line.
in our shop :
MINIPLANE LR 160
Know more about the World Championship 2025.
Visit our FB page, look for the posts around end of august 2025