Are you an experienced paraglider pilot? Do you fly paragliding, supervised by a professional school? Or are you about to make your first tandem flight over the majestic Lake Annecy? Whatever the reason, paragliding interests you. But do you really know how this aerobatic sport was born? And who invented it? Focus on the history of paragliding.
From America…
It was the American David Barish, a test pilot for the US force, who in 1965 developed the Sailwing, an entirely flexible wing that he tested in a ski resort. He then developed the activity of slope soaring which consists of flying on a slope. David Barish was not a great success, but the beginnings of paragliding were there! At the same time as these first experiments, Domina Jalbert from Quebec created a parachute with boxes: the parafoil. This last invention inspired the creation of the paragliding wing.
… to France
It was later, in June 1978, that paragliding was born on French territory, in Haute-Savoie. The first flight was organised by a Swiss man, André Bohn, from the Pertuiset mountain, in Mieussy. The members of the Annemasse paraclub joined the adventure by making a parachute flight, while André Bohn took off from the summit to land lower down on the town’s football pitch. And so was born the first paragliding flight in history! A team of enthusiasts, including Jean-Claude Bétemps, Gérard Bosson, Gérard Cantin, Michel Didrich, Marc Baruch, Daniel Marchal and many others, set out to conquer the summits to make a paragliding flight themselves. The following year, in 1979, the first paragliding club in the world was founded and is still active today. And four years later, paragliding became a discipline in its own right.
The Haute-Savoie region has been the perfect place for paragliding for decades. Since then, thousands of amateurs and professionals have taken to the beautiful blue skies of the region, to live a sensational experience and admire the landscape that is offered to them at each flight: Lake Annecy, snowy passes, pine forests…