The Airwave Magic IV is a direct descendant of the Comet. Airwave was founded in 1981 to license-manufacture UP Comets on the Isle of Wight, offshore England's south coast (in the middle, south of Southampton).

Employing top hang glider pilots, sailmakers, and design experts from all over the world, Airwave improved on the basic design and named the new model the Magic Comet. By then most other major hang glider manufacturers had copied the Comet but none were paying license fees to Ultralight Products. The situation was never resolved to everyone's satisfaction. The Airwave / UP partnership ended.

Airwave refined the design further, and throughout the middle 1980s the Magic III, then the Magic IV, set the standard in performance flex wing design. Subsequently one American manufacturer, publicly acknowledging the situation, headlined an advertisement for its new glider the Mystic -- a copy of Airwave's product -- 'Mystic is Magic!'

Although it is heavy by modern standards (this is written in 2001), and can be no longer categorised as a performance hang glider, its overall flying qualities and ease of rigging are so good that many are still flying. Indeed, the author, unable to afford a modern sports intermediate, has returned to flying his Magic IV in preference to his other, higher performance wing.