3rd Year Special Annual Double Issue Vol 4 Issue 1 & 2 Jan - Apr 2 3rd Year Special Annual Double Issue Vol 4 Issue | Page 15

Canadian
Domina
Jalbert
invented
the Parafoil, which had sectioned cells in
an aerofoil shape; an open leading edge
and a closed trailing edge, inflated by
passage through the air – the ram-air
design. He filed US Patent 3131894 on
January 10, 1963.
About that time, David Barish was
developing the “sail wing” (single-
surface wing) for recovery of NASA space
capsules – “slope soaring was a way of
testing out ... the Sail Wing. After tests on
Hunter Mountain, New York, in September
1965, he went on to promote slope
soaring as a summer activity for ski resorts.
Author Walter Neumark wrote Operating
Procedures for Ascending Parachutes,
and in 1973 he and a group of enthusiasts
with a passion for tow-launching PCs and
ram-air parachutes broke away from the
British Parachute Association to form the
British Association of Parascending Clubs
(which later became the British Hang
Gliding and Paragliding Association). In
1997, Neumark was awarded the Gold
Medal of the Royal Aero Club of the UK.
Authors Patrick Gilligan (Canada) and
Bertrand Dubuis (Switzerland) wrote the first
flight manual, The Paragliding Manual in
1985, coining the word paragliding.
These developments were combined in
June 1978 by three friends, Jean-Claude
Bétemps, André Bohn and Gérard Bosson,
from Mieussy, Haute-Savoie, France. After
inspiration from an article on slope
soaring
in
the
Parachute
Manual
magazine by parachutist and publisher
Dan Poynter, they calculated that on a
suitable slope, a “square” ram-air
parachute could be inflated by running
down the slope; Bétemps launched from
Pointe du Pertuiset, Mieussy, and flew 100
m. Bohn followed him and glided down
to the football pitch in the valley 1000 metres
below. “Parapente” (pente being French for
“slope”) was born.
From
the
1980s,
equipment
has
continued to improve, and the number
of paragliding pilots and established
sites
has
continued
to
increase.
The first (unofficial) Paragliding World
Championship was held in Verbier,
Switzerland,
in
1987,
though
the
Vol 4 | Issue 1 |Jan - Feb 2019
15