Governing Body: | Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) |
In 1952 Canadian Domina Jalbert licensed a parachute with multi-cells and controls for parallel glide.
In 1954, Walter Neumark anticipated (in an article in Flight magazine) a time when a lightweight glider pilot would be "ready to glide himself by running over the edge of a mountain or down an incline ... "
In 1961, the French specialist Pierre Lemongine created improved parachute design that prompted the Para-Commander. The Para-Commander had patterns at the back and sides that empowered it to be towed into the air and controlled, prompting parasailing/parascending.
Domina Jalbert developed the Parafoil, which had separated cells in an aerofoil shape; an open leading edge and a closed trailing edge, swelled by passage through the air – the ram air design.
From the 1980s, gear has kept on improving, and the quantity of paragliding pilots and built up gliding sites has kept on expanding. The first (informal) Paragliding World Championship was held in Verbier, Switzerland, in 1987; however, the first formally authorised FAI World Paragliding Championship was held in Kössen, Austria, in 1989.
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