Paragliding kites

Met the maker of https://gliderbase.com/ by chance.
It’s a database and comparison tool for paragliders. They are amost exclusively LEIs with a few single skins. Price range from about 2.5 to 4.5 k€
Don’t know how well they are suited for power kites, but if anyone wants to abuse one that’s where you can start looking.

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Experimental Study of Paraglider Aerodynamics

Abstract:
This project report presents experimental results that were obtained by running wind tunnel tests on a reduced-scale semi-rigid model of a ram-air wing, emulating two-dimensional behaviour. Ram-air parachutes are currently being increasingly studied as they are starting to be used in energy production, in addition to their numerous applications in the recreational field, notably sports, or military field and cargo delivery. This report experimentally investigates the role of the leading edge intakes configuration on drag, as well as the influence of the trailing edge configuration on aerodynamic performance. This report aims at producing experimental data useful in optimising the aerodynamics of ram-air parachutes, which can be used from a scientific point of view as well as directly by ram-air parachutes manufacturers.

(PDF) Experimental Study of Paraglider Aerodynamics. Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/319702478_Experimental_Study_of_Paraglider_Aerodynamics [accessed Aug 29 2023].

An excerpt (page 1):

One of the possibilities to exploit high-altitude wind power is to deploy kites tethered to the ground. As the kite flies, it uncoils lines from a drum on the ground that rotates and produces energy. To produce the equivalent of a 3 MW turbine, with a three-fold increase in wind speed, it would therefore be enough to deploy a 70 m² kite at 1000 m altitude.

Another excerpt (page 4):

Usual aerodynamic performance (Cl, Cd)
As seen in figure 3, the lift coefficient of traditional ram-air parachutes reaches about 0.8,which is far from what could be theoretically predicted (at least 1.2) from the aerofoil section.S. Lingard gives experimental data regarding the usual drag coefficient for conventional ram-air parachutes (same aspect ratio and airfoil section used as previously). The data can be seen in figure 4. The drag coefficient Cd for usual ram-air wings ranges from approximately 0.06 to 0.2 for the useful range of angles of attack. Note that all results in this section are for ram-air wings, without suspensions lines.As a result the lift-to-drag ratio obtained for ram-air wings of aspect ratio of 3 reaches about 5 according to S. Lingard [2] and about 2 to 4 for ram-air parachutes (anhedral angle and suspensions lines taken into account) according to E. Puskas [13]. The maximum liftto drag ratio is reached at about 8 − 9◦ angles of incidence (just before stall).