Paraplane WD-1 Wind Dancer

The Paraplane WD-1 Wind Dancer is an American powered parachute that was designed and produced by Paraplane International of Medford, New Jersey. Now out of production, when it was available the aircraft was supplied as a kit for amateur construction.

Design and development
The WD-1 Wind Dancer was designed to comply with the US FAR 103 Ultralight Vehicles rules, including the category's maximum empty weight of 254 lb. The aircraft has a standard empty weight of 190 lb. It features a 370 sqft Hi-Pro parachute-style wing, single-place accommodation, tricycle landing gear and a single 40 hp Rotax 447 engine in pusher configuration.

The aircraft carriage is built from a combination of aluminium and 4130 steel tubing. In flight steering is accomplished via foot pedals that actuate the canopy brakes, creating roll and yaw. On the ground the aircraft has foot-controlled nosewheel steering. The main landing gear incorporates steel spring rod suspension. The aircraft has a typical empty weight of 190 lb and a gross weight of 480 lb, giving a useful load of 290 lb. With full fuel of 5 u.s.gal the payload for the pilot and baggage is 260 lb.

The standard day, sea level, no wind, take off with a 40 hp engine is 125 ft and the landing roll is 50 ft.

The manufacturer estimates the construction time from the supplied assembly kit as five hours.