Monday 23 of Oct, 2000 <P><BR>NOVA DISSOLVES ITS COMP TEAM<P>Nova has dissolved its international competition team and stopped producing competition prototypes.<P>Over the past ten years, the Nova competition team has been arguably one of the most successful of all, taking<BR>a string of national and international trophies.<P>But Wolfgang Lechner, the company's financial director, told us 'It is a waste of time and money to stay in the<BR>scene.'<P>The Austrian company, which is one of the largest paragliding manufacturers in the world, has cited a number of<BR>reasons for their decision:<P>-Public interest is decreasing from year to year. International competitions, like for example the well organised<BR>Europeans in Garmisch, take place without any spectators. <P>-Because of tasksetting, interesting TV-reports are very difficult to realise or extremely expensive.<P>-Even pilots get less and less attracted by international competitions.<P>-The comp protos are made for a few professional pilots only, for normal pilots they are completely unsuitable.<P>-There is very little transfer of technology between competition gliders and serial gliders.<P>When asked about what was in store for the future, Wolfgang commented; 'First priority will always be<BR>uncompromising development of serial gliders. Beyond that our interest will be more concentrated in public<BR>relations, a wider spread classic advertisement and film projects. And of course NOVA is continuing sponsorship<BR>of mass sports and supports new sporting challenges. So we try to transport the fascination of our sport to a<BR>wider public.'<P>Hugh Miller - aHVnaEB4Y21hZy5jb20=<BR>