For the last 2 months Stephan Stieglair has been working at Airwave and with Bruce arranging the move of their R&D department from Bruce's home in France, where it has been based over the last 10 years, back to Austria, to the HQ of Airwave and their purpose built premises.

It's also been a chance for the new members of the team to get to grips with the different systems, in particular, Merlin, Airwave's unique design program.

With Stephan Stieglair, AIRWAVE have one of the world's foremost designers: >Designed by Stieglair< has been synonymous with a certification for top performance and balanced flight behaviour - from school wings to world-championship gliders.

As a pilot Stephan Stieglair has long been in the hall of fame: Former Paragliding World Champion, Stephan has also won countless World Cup competitions and Austrian National Championships. Even after his official withdrawal from competitions, he is still considered one of the best pilots worldwide. Stephan's glider designs have brought home World Championships and World Cup wins in 2003 and 2004 as well as great success for his former brand in the Serial and Sports classes.

AIRWAVE's boss Markus Villinger tells us "High quality, top performance and superb dynamics: AIRWAVE has always committed to these values. The Airwave Team look forward to get the best of all worlds:

"- Stephan Stieglair's proven design skills plus a young and motivated team, which on top was trained by, and had many years experience working with, Bruce Goldsmith. Furthermore Airwave uses the best CAD software and hardware available in the industry and we have our own manufacturers, all adding up to guarantee for highly innovative products of top quality."

With the extension of our design department AIRWAVE has continued a careful restructuring of our company. Our goal has been to form a team of highly motivated specialists, who work hand in hand and have their roots in the vicinity of the company headquarters in the Austrian Stubaital, which results in short distances and determined teamwork. AIRWAVE officially announced the signing of contract with Mario Eder in February. The head of the new AIRWAVE test-pilot team lives and works only a glide's distance away from Stephan Stieglairs home in the Zillertal and 30 minutes from the factory…"

We look forward to more new developments from a reinvigorated Airwave.