Volvo uses their truck for paragliding

Trust Volvo to come up with the most insane stunts to show off the capabilities of their trucks. This time too, they have given us something that is fun to watch.

Paragliding is a major recreational activity around the world. The person is strapped into a harness attached to a glider. He then jumps off a hill or cliff, uses the aerodynamic properties of his glider (called ‘wing’) and rises up, flies or floats around using air currents/ He can also use an external force to get himself air-borne and move forward. This time around, Volvo decided that they wanted to use their truck to pull and propel a paraglider while managing his altitude by adjusting the truck’s speed as the paraglider requested. Here is a video of the outrageous stunt.

The man in the air is Guillaume Galvani, a well known paraglider and the truck that was used for to complete this feat was Volvo’s FH 540. The main reason behind this stunt was to showcase the ease of driving of their new truck. For Galvani to stay up, it required the truck driver to drive at a particular speed. The road used for this had inclines and declines, which had to be tackled keeping the speed in mind.

The FH truck that was used is powered by a 13.0 liter engine that makes 500-540 Bhp and is Euro 6 compliant. The engine is mated to a dual clutch gearbox that shifts in such a way that the vehicle always remains in the power band, something that is necessary especially when speed needs to be maintained while going uphill. The video was shot to showcase how easy the truck is to drive and how the gearbox makes sure that the vehicle is always in the powerband.

This is not the first time that Volvo has used stuntmen to showcase the prowess of their trucks. They previously got Jean-Claude Van Damme to pull a split in between 2 trucks while they were being reversed. That video was however shot to showcase the trucks dynamic steering feature. A video of the same can be seen below:

Volvo has always been at the forefront when it came to trucks and technology. These videos showcase how good they are at marketing their products as well.