History

The origin of paragliding has roots in the sport of parachuting. In the early 1960s, American parachutist Pierre Lemoigne was successful in cutting slots in the round parachute canopy to allow for air to flow through the canopy. This had a dramatic effect on the lift to drag ratio and allowed the pilot to steer the chute in a predictable manner.

In 1962, Walter Newmark of England took note of Lemoigne's design and modified it so that the chute could be towed aloft. During the 60s, parascending became a popular sport among the English. Newmark was responsible for the creation of the British Association of Parascending in the early 1970s.

In 1964, Domina Jalbert of Florida invented a square canopy called the Ram Air Para Foil. The Ram Air worked by allowing air to pass through the double surface glider allowing for better manoeuvrability and increased lift. Walter Newmark soon adopted this canopy for his parascending activities. Using specially designed ram-air parachute canopies, instead of wings of aluminium and dacron, paraglider pilots launch, glide and soar in much the same way that hang-glider pilots do.

It wasn't until the 1970s that the sport began to take off. Gerard Bosson, André Bohn and Jean Claude Bétemps introduced paragliding at the 1979 World Hang Gliding Championships.

The first pioneering foot-launched flights on gliding parachutes were made during the mid-1960's by David Barish in the U.S. The sport of recreational paragliding as we know it today was born in Mieussy, France, in 1978 and grew rapidly during the mid-1980's in the French and Swiss Alps as commercial manufacturers improved the glider designs to optimise them for soaring flight.