The Wills Wing Litestream Control Bar
For 2003, Wills Wing released the Litestream control bar for performance oriented recreational pilots. The Litestream control bar combines the same low drag aluminum streamlined basetube used on the Slipstream control bar with a slightly shorter chord, lighter weight, easier to hold Litestream aluminum downtube.
The Litestream bar is standard equipment on Sport 3 glider, and optional on the T3.
The Litestream control bar can also be purchased as an add-on accessory for the Falcon 4 145, 170 and 195 models. The best control bar for high-performance recreational flying, the Litestream bar comes very close to matching the performance of the Slipstream bar, while saving 1.5 lbs in weight. The smaller profile makes ground handling and launching significantly easier, especially for pilots with smaller hands.
(For comparison purposes, the performance given up by dropping down from a Slipstream to a Litestream control bar is approximately equal to the performance that would be gained back by removing the coating from the bottom side wires. By comparison, moving up from an AT-style streamlined control bar with round basetube to a Litestream control bar does away with over 90% of the drag of the control bar, adding approximately one full point in L/D to the glider’s performance.)
