3rd Year Special Annual Double Issue Vol 4 Issue 1 & 2 Jan - Apr 2 3rd Year Special Annual Double Issue Vol 4 Issue | Page 14

Paragliding
P
aragliding is the recreational
and competitive adventure
sport of flying paragliders:
lightweight,
free-flying,
foot-
launched glider aircraft with no
rigid primary structure. The pilot
sits in a harness suspended
below a fabric wing. Wing shape is
maintained by the suspension lines,
the pressure of air entering vents in
the front of the wing, and the aer-
odynamic forces of the air flowing
over the outside.
Despite not using an engine,
paraglider flights can last many
hours and cover many hundreds of
kilometers, though flights of one to
two hours and covering some tens
of kilometers are more the norm.
By skillful exploitation of sources of
lift, the pilot may gain height, often
climbing to altitudes of a few thou-
sand meters.
14
History
In 1952, Domino C. Jalbert
advanced
governable
gliding
parachutes with multi-cells and
controls for lateral glide.
In 1954, Walter Neumark predicted
(in an article in Flight magazine) a
time when a glider pilot would be
“able to launch himself by running
over the edge of a cliff or down a
slope whether on a rock-climb-
ing holiday in Skye or skiing in the
Alps.”
In 1961, the French engineer Pierre
Lemongine produced improved
parachute designs that led to
the Para-Commander. The PC
had cutouts at the rear and sides
that enabled it to be towed into
the air and steered, leading to
parasailing/parascending.
Vol 4 | Issue 1 |Jan - Feb 2019