-
1965
David BARISH develops the first paraglider for NASA.
-
1989
1987 Bruce learns to paraglide in Australia (image: Britsh HG team 1989)
-
1979
Bruce learns to hang glide in the UK.
-
1990
Bruce starts the paragliding devision of Airwave.
-
1991
Bruce and Barney Barnes make the instructional film “Instability" in collaboration with BHPA.
-
1995
Scale model wind tunnel tests at Oxford and Bristol University on scale models and profiles.
-
1997
John Pendry World Champion on XXX and this glider dominates the competition scene.
-
1998
Saloman Trophy for Design Awarded to Bruce by Royal Aero Club in London.
-
2007
Bruce Goldsmith becomes Paragliding World Champion flying a Magic FR.
-
2010
With Cambridge and DELFT University Bruce uses stereo photography to help the design.
-
2012
BGD Founded by Bruce Goldsmith (GB), Arna Reynisdottir (Is), and Christoph Scheer (A)
-
2014
Ant Green brings a new look to BGD with his wild color schemes and graphic design.
-
2015
Cross Country publish 50 Ways to Fly Better by Bruce Goldsmith and friends.
Gleitschirme mit Persönlichkeit
Es begann als kleines Unternehmen, das in einer Garage arbeitete, aber Bruce Goldsmith Design ist heute ein führender Hersteller von Qualitätsgleitschirmen und Ausrüstungen für das Gleitschirmfliegen. Inspiriert und angetrieben von Bruce, hat die Forschungs- und Entwicklungsabteilung ihren Sitz in Südfrankreich, wo immer die Sonne scheint. Der Vertrieb erfolgt in Österreich und die Produktion in Sri Lanka.
Die BGD-Familie ist stark und wir sind alle durch unsere Liebe zum Gleitschirmfliegen verbunden. Unsere Mission ist es, unseren Sport mit Freunden und Familie zu teilen. Wir lieben das Gefühl, mit der Luft verbunden zu sein, und unsere Produkte sind darauf ausgelegt. Wir produzieren sichere, unterhaltsame und frische Produkte, die immer mit der raffinierten Handhabung und den innovativen Eigenschaften geliefert werden, für die Bruce's Designs bekannt sind.
Directors
BGD ist nach Bruce, MD und Leiter des Entwicklungsteams benannt. Fliegen ist in Bruce 'DNA. In den 1980er Jahren lernte er als Ingenieurstudent am Imperial College in London Drachenfliegen und schoss schnell an die Spitze des britischen Drachenfliegens, wo er 1991 die Superleague gewann. Ab 1986 war er ein Jahrzehnt lang Mitglied des britischen Drachenfliegerteams zweimal britischer Meister im Drachenfliegen. Ab 1989 war er auch im britischen Paragliding-Team, wurde dreimal britischer Paragliding-Champion und 2007 WPRS # 1-Pilot und Weltmeister.
Der in London geborene Bruce lebt heute mit seiner Frau Arna und drei Kindern in Südfrankreich. Als Gründungsmitglied von Airwave Paragliders und Ozone entwarf er zwei Jahre lang für Advance, bevor er 2012 die BGD gründete. Bruce ist Autor, Redner und Ausbilder. Er hat eine regelmäßige Kolumne im Cross Country Magazin und ist Präsident der APPI (Association of Paragliding Pilots and Ausbilder).
Arna war die erste Isländerin, die Hängegleiter flog, als sie im Alter von 17 Jahren mit dem Fallschirmspringen von ihrem Vater angelockt wurde. Er kaufte ihr einen Wills Wing Harrier und es war Liebe auf den ersten Blick! Arna nahm an mehreren Celtic Cups in Irland und Wales teil und traf sich mit den Stars der British League. Sie lernte Bruce jedoch erst kennen, als sie sich 1997 auf einem Parkplatz in Südfrankreich trafen.
Als Bruce 'Testpilot abstürzte und ihren neuen Wettkampfschirm Airwave Magic zerstörte, lieh er ihr den Gleitschirm, mit dem ihre Gleitschirmkarriere begann. Arna und Bruce heirateten 1997 und Arna flog viel und begleitete Bruce zu bis zu 14 Wettbewerben pro Jahr. Während sie sich ein paar Jahre lang auf die Familie konzentrierte, trat das Fliegen in den Hintergrund, aber jetzt sind die Kinder erwachsen und sie ist wieder am Himmel, wo sie hingehört, auf einem Magic.
Christophs Flugkarriere wurde zum Teil von seiner damaligen Freundin im Jahr 2002 inspiriert. Er lernte das Paragliden in der Nähe seines Hauses in Wolfsberg, Österreich, und verliebte sich sofort in den Sport, indem er seinen Airwave-Paragleiter auf einigen großen Langstreckenflügen flog und brach damaligen 100 km Rekord mit großem Vorsprung. Anschließend trat er in der österreichischen A-Liga an. Der gelernte Ingenieur war beruflich an einigen großen Bauprojekten beteiligt, unter anderem am Bau von Brücken zwischen Österreich und Serbien für die PORR, eines der größten österreichischen Bauunternehmen.
Im Jahr 2012 lockte ihn ein anderes Leben, er verließ die Bauwelt und schloss sich mit Bruce und Arna zu einem aufregenden neuen Projekt zusammen - der Gründung von BGD. Christoph lebt noch immer mit seiner Frau Mila und seinem Sohn Maximillian in Wolfsberg, wo er vom österreichischen Büro und Vertriebszentrum aus den europäischen Vertrieb von BGD leitet.
Tom started paragliding at the age of 14 in Saint Hilaire du Touvet. At 15 he bought a sewing machine and started designing his first kites and paragliders in his bedroom. His enthusiasm for paraglider aerodynamics and structures grew even more when he entered one of the top aerospace engineering schools in France, ISAE-Supaero in Toulouse. He started working for BGD in 2017, when he was entrusted with the development of a new simulation software that became operational in 2018.
The software is now an integral part of BGD’s R&D tools, and Tom and Bruce work closely together on the new designs. Alongside this work, Tom is pursuing academical work to better understand the physics of our flying machines. His PHD is the first to be dedicated to paragliding: “Fluid-structure interaction simulations of highly deformable sails.”
Besatzung
TYR GOLDSMITH
TEST PILOT/GRAPHICS
TYR@FLYBGD.COM
Bruce and Arna's eldest son, Tyr was born into paragliding and has flourished. He has already won numerous paragliding competitions (Us Nationals, Rio Cup, Weightless, etc.) and loves everything related to the air. He is a test pilot and works on glider graphic design for BGD.
Mila Scheer
Office Austria
Mila@flybgd.com
Mila lives in Wolfsberg, with her husband Christoph and son Maximillian, where she helps manage the Austrian office and distribution centre.
Maria Baumgartner
Accounts / Book-keeping
maria@flybgd.com
Maria works in the accounts department in the Austrian office. A mother of two, she loves to travel, and enjoys skiing, snowboarding and tennis in her spare time.
Irena Koler
Shipping Austria
Irena@flybgd.com
Irena lives in Slovenia, near the Austrian border, and looks after stock and shipping at BGD’s warehouse in Austria. Before moving to BGD she was a wood technology engineer for 25 years. She loves the great outdoors and beautiful landscapes, but she feels most connected to nature through her sports – paragliding, mountaineering, skiing, cycling and surfing.
Nikola Dukleski
Software developer
nikola@flybgd.com
Nikola has a short history of flying, but a passion for writing long lines of code. An in-house developer, he is responsible for the enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, making sure every part of the process runs smoothly and error-free. He lives with his wife and his two lovely children next to the oldest lake in Europe, Ohrid. He loves playing guitar and traveling.
Kay Arianpour
IT guru
kay@flybgd.com
Kay is a paraglider pilot who is enthusiastic about hike & fly, and a kiteboarder who likes to go far in the sea. He has been a computer programmer since 1994. He lives in Fethiye close to the famous paragliding site of Ölüdeniz, and is here to boost the BGD IT infrastructure.
Medien
Anthony GREEN
Graphic Design / Film
ant@flybgd.com
By age 16 Ant’s passion for adventure led him to paragliding. He has flown competitively since 2004 in acrobatics and cross country. Studying film, business and math he has been with BGD since the start bringing all the wild colors to the products. Ant is currently our graphic and in-house film guy and lives and works in Morzine, France.
Charlie King
Editor
Charlie@flybgd.com
Charlie’s first paragliding flight was back in 1994, a 21’st birthday gift that has lasted 25 years and counting. She now flies an Echo, a far cry from the parachute used on that first tow launch in rural England. She lives with her family in southern France and is a daytime desk jockey who works on BGD’s newsletters, manuals and brochures.
Testpiloten
Julien Barbier
Paramotor Test pilot
Julien loves and seeks out challenges. After flying in the French Paramotor team, he flew over Chile for 6 months alone and without any assistance, to conduct a biodiversity study. Recently, he broke the world altitude flight record for paramotor-trike. He helps BGD in testing new wings and participating in the concept of « Team Rider Pilot ».
Pasquale Biondo
Paramotor test pilot
Paramotor World Champion Pasquale Biondo has been passionate about flying since playing with his father's wing at the age of 13. He pursued a degree in aerospace engineering before starting out in paramotor competitions. He has been Italian Paramotor Champion multiple times, and in 2022 was crowned Paramotor World Champion. He is part of the R&D team, helping to develop and improve the PPG range.
Verkaufsagenten
Blaise Brogan
Sales Team Leader
blaise@flybgd.com
A father, pilot, windsurfer, and tree surgeon, Blaise was born with adventure in his blood and started flying in 2009. He works for Miniplane Paramotors, Rise Paragliding, FlySpain and Freeflight Academy and now heads up BGD's sales team and looks after our UK sales
Anna Darchenkova
International sales
ANNA@FLYBGD.COM
Anna was born and raised in the Caucasus mountains. She started paragliding in 2007 and was instantly hooked. She is an interior designer by trade but has put her artistic life aside for now and made paragliding her work. Anna is a professional tandem pilot, working and traveling all over the world. She is in charge of BGD international sales.
Masta (Francesco Delpiano)
Sales Italy
MASTA@FLYBGD.COM
Masta, born Francesco Delpiano, was infected with the paragliding virus in 2012 during a trip to Nepal. In 2018, thanks to his friend Malcom Deodati, he started flying under the colours of BGD. He lives with his partner Alessia and his son Theo in the north west of the Alps, works as a show technician and keeps an eye on sales for BGD. If he doesn't answer the phone he is probably smiling under the clouds or on a mountain take-off somewhere!
Navid Saleki
Sales International PPG
NAVID@FLYBGD.COM
Half Swedish, Half Iranian grew up in Sweden and lived in many places. Navid Saleki has a mechanical/business engineering background and has been passionate of extreme sports since he started learning riding a bicycle. After reaching the top in freestyle BMX riding he turned to the sky. After skydiving and paragliding he is all about paramotoring. Navid is rooted in the paramotor and paratrike world.
Timo Schumacher
Sales Germany
TIMO@FLYBGD.COM
Born in the German flatland Timo has craved to fly since he was a little boy. After starting paragliding at the age of 14 he began to push the limits of Cross-Country flying in his region, along the way he fell in love with BGD and joined the team at first as a team pilot. Now he is supporting the German sales from the flatlands.
Raphael Laghi
Sales International PPG
raphael@flybgd.com
Coming from a family of pioneering pilots in Brazil, Flying is part of Raphael's DNA. He has been flying paragliders and paramotors since 2008 and works as an instructor and tandem pilot in Sri Lanka and Europe. He is passionate about XC across Brazil and paramotoring over the Amazon. Raphael knows our paramotor range well and is our international paramotor sales guy.
David CHAUMET
R & D
David@flybgd.com
David CHAUMET works with R&D, and runs a service center. He has been flying sailplanes, paragliders, hang gliders, and UL aircraft since 1989 and was part of the French hangliding and paragliding team from 2002 to 2008 winning several world championship podiums in class 5 hang gliders! He's specialized in composite materials and electrical engines for aeronautical applications. Check out his electric Swift and electric paraglider.
Mario Koller
Sales Germany
Mario@flybgd.com
Mario lives, breaths, and dreams paragliding. He is always smiling and strives to share his passion with everyone. Mario lives and works mostly from home in Nesselwang, Germany.
Benedikt Bös
Sales Germany PPG
bene@flybgd.com
Another medical man, orthopaedic technician and prosthetics-maker Bene was infected with the flying bug at the age of 16. Powered paragliding is the bug that has bitten the hardest, and Bene is an international competitor in classic and endurance paramotoring. He is also a PPG test pilot and has headed up BGD’s motor division since 2013.
Martin Lifka-Schachner
Sales Austria
martin.lifka@flybgd.com
As a child Martin has always dreamed of flying and he loves the mountains. He spent many years flying RC sailplanes, kite surfing, and is an Ironman triathlete which led him to hike and fly. Martin is a professional photographer and marketing specialist acting as a consultant and photographer for BGD. He also covers sales in Austria. Martin lives in the Austrian Alps in Söll, Tyrol.
