Paragliding History

Paragliding involves sitting on a harness and using the wind to inflate a large sail, allowing the passenger to fly. Many people have the misconception that paragliding had its start during the 1960s in Europe. While it is true that the advent of paragliding as a sport began at that time, paragliding began two decades before. It was originally used by the U.S. military and NASA. From that time, paragliding has developed to become a popular recreational activity and a competitive sport.

  1. Military Use

    • During World War II, the US Navy recruited and trained sailors to fly paragliders towed by submarines. The vantage point of the glider allowed the men to see over the horizon for any approaching warships. While these early paragliders were simply modified parachutes, this was the first documented use of a free flying, foot launched aircraft in such a fashion. In 1961, Pierre M. Lemoigne invented the paracommander parachute, which had vents in the rear to allow for longer gliding. Paracommanders were utilized for military training and led to the development of further paraglider development.

    1950s and 60s NASA

    • In 1958, Francis and Gertrude Rogallo, who were working for NASA, designed a paraglider to be used in retrieving rockets. This paraglider was known as the Rogallo wing and modified the parachute design to be flattened and more similar in shape than its predecessors. This work was continued by David Barish, who in 1965 took the first flight on a device he called the sail wing, which very much resembled modern day paragliders. This first flight took place in a ski resort in New York. After this Barish tried to market his sail wing as part of a sport he called slope soaring, but had little success.

    Recreation

    • During the 1970s, paragliding began to be a more popular pastime. In the United States, German-born Dieter Strasilla developed a parachute that he could launch with his feet and sail among the dunes of the California desert. Around the same time, similar parachutes were used by British "parascenders." Parascending involved the use of a parachute tethered to a car or other vehicle in order to get the appropriate lift and speed. Once the paraglider was in the air, the car released the tether and the paraglider flew on its own. In 1978, three French paragliders, Jean-Claude Betemps, Andre Bohn and Gerard Bosson practiced a technique of running and jumping off the face of cliffs in the French Alps. This form of paragliding became increasingly popular, and in 1979 Bosson flew a paraglider at the Hang Gliding World Championships.

    Competition

    • The first Paragliding World Championship was held in 1989 in Kossen, Austria. Since that time, the championships have been organized by the Paragliding Commission of the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale, or FIA, which governs all air sports. The championship is now divided into three separate events. One is for cross-country, another for aerobatic stunt, and one for accuracy. In addition to its championships, the FIA also maintains world records for paragliding.

    1990s NASA

    • During the 1990s, NASA began work on a project known as X38. The goal of this program was to provide return vehicles for astronauts in case of an emergency on the International Space Station. These return vehicles were designed to be carried safely to Earth using parafoils, large paragliders meant to accommodate spacecraft rather than people. As a result, NASA created the largest parafoil the world had ever seen --- it was used in testing over the Mojave Desert in 2000. Since then, the NASA X38 program has been canceled, but the design of its parafoil has led to improvements in the designs of paragliders.