The categories

(photo : Vol Libre)CIVL has changed its categories of gliders from time to time to complement advances in technology and the requirements of the pilots, the object being to keep championship competition fair while still leaving room for designers to innovate.

After early and unsatisfactory attempts to define a ‘Standard Class’ for competition (comparable to one of the dinghy classes in sailing) the sport settled for Class 1 and Class 2.
Class 1 was for hang gliders controlled entirely by weight-shift.
Class 2 was anything else – gliders with tip-draggers, ailerons, rudders etc.
Almost all competition took place in Class 1, with Class 2 receiving so little support that for several years there was no Class 2 at World Championships.

The classes didn’t change from 1978 until 1987, when paragliders were given Class 3.

Class 4 was introduced in 1996 to take ultra-lightweight sailplanes: aircraft which had difficulty complying with the hang-glider requirement of being able to be foot-launched and landed, yet which otherwise fitted into the hang-glider world – particularly in regard to being tow-launched on lightweight equipment rather than that used for sailplanes. Records have been set in Class 4, but no championships have ever been held.

There were then only detail changes until 2002, when Class 5 was approved by CIVL. This class is really a sub-unit of Class 2, the main requirement being that the pilot cannot be faired-in to the glider.
Class 5 was introduced for a pragmatic reason: to accommodate a type of hang glider which was becoming extremely popular at the end of the twentieth century yet was not eligible for Class 1 and was not competitive in Class 2. This was the Exxtacy and its successors, the Atos, Stratos, Ghostbuster and several others.

So today we have:
Class 1: the Hang gliders
Class 2: the "Swift like" Rigid gliders
Class 3: the Paragliders
Class 4: the Ultralight sailplanes
Class 5: the "Atos like" Rigid gliders