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1965
David BARISH develops the first paraglider for NASA.
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1989
1987 Bruce learns to paraglide in Australia (image: Britsh HG team 1989)
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1979
Bruce learns to hang glide in the UK.
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1990
Bruce starts the paragliding devision of Airwave.
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1991
Bruce and Barney Barnes make the instructional film “Instability" in collaboration with BHPA.
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1995
Scale model wind tunnel tests at Oxford and Bristol University on scale models and profiles.
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1997
John Pendry World Champion on XXX and this glider dominates the competition scene.
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1998
Saloman Trophy for Design Awarded to Bruce by Royal Aero Club in London.
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2007
Bruce Goldsmith becomes Paragliding World Champion flying a Magic FR.
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2010
With Cambridge and DELFT University Bruce uses stereo photography to help the design.
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2012
BGD Founded by Bruce Goldsmith (GB), Arna Reynisdottir (Is), and Christoph Scheer (A)
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2014
Ant Green brings a new look to BGD with his wild color schemes and graphic design.
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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.
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.”
Mitarbeiter
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.
Anna Darchenkova
Sales, Russia
Anna was born and raised in the Caucasus mountains in Russia. 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 sales in Russia and the Balkans.
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.
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 ».
NAVID SALEKI
INTERNATIONAL PARAMOTOR SALES
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.
Patricia Rodrigues
Marketing / administration
Patricia is a languages expert and a lover of travel and culture. She speaks English, French, Spanish. Portuguese and German fluently, and has a degree in languages (Portuguese, German and English) from the University of Nice. She is part of the sales and marketing team.
Timo Schumacher
Sales Germany
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.
TYR GOLDSMITH
TEST PILOT/GRAPHICS
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.
Raphael Laghi
International Paramotor Sales
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.
Pasquale Biondo
Paramotor test pilot
At 13 Pasquale started playing with his father’s paraglider and became immediately passionate about the sport. He pursued a degree in aerospace engineering and began competing in paramotor competitions, winning the Baltic Sea championships, coming 3rd in the World Championships and has been Italian champion six times! He loves trimming and modifying gliders, and works closely with the R&D team to develop and improve the PPG range.
David CHAUMET
Sales France
David@flybgd.com
David CHAUMET is BGD sales manager for France, helps 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 PPG Germany
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.
Malcom DEODATI
Sales Italy
Malcom@flybgd.com
BGD’s Italian importer, Malcom is as much at home under the sea as in the sky. He travelled the world as a scuba-diving instructor for 12 years before discovering paragliding. He now lives in the Italian Alps, where he works as a tandem pilot and looks after BGD’s sales. His enthusiasm for flying is infectious, and he’s a font of knowledge about BGD wings.
Claudia Riquelme
Sales Latin America
Claudia@flybgd.com
Claudia started paragliding in 1994, and since the beginning of the millennium has worked as a professional journalist and translator specialized in paragliding and paramotor. With a deep knowledge of the sport and the Spanish-spoken scene, she oversees our sales in Spain and Latin America.
Lucas Machado
Sales Brazil
Lucas@flybgd.com
Lucas is a medical doctor, and took up hang gliding in the early ‘80s. He flew Airwave hang gliders and paragliders – his first paraglider in 1993 was a Bruce design. He and Bruce have been friends since then, and Lucas has been with BGD from the start. He’s since thrown in the stethoscope to be BGD’s Brazilian importer. “Still working while others play”, he sighs!
Alev Durgun
Sales Turkey
Alev@flybgd.com
Born in Turkey but living in Germany Alev first started paragliding in 2009. A anesthesiologist by profession she is now also working in a flight school in Germany to become an instructor and tandem pilot in order to share the joy of flight. Since June 2018 she became responsible for the BGD Sales Turkey.
Yan CHEN
SALES SOUTHEAST ASIA
yan@flybgd.com
Yan discovered paragliding while in Nepal in 2012, a life-changing experience that led to her quitting her management consultancy job to pursue her love of free-flight. She is now a paragliding freelance writer and Chinese interpreter / translator, and she has travelled and flown all over the world. Yan currently lives in Spain, and looks after BGD’s Chinese sales.
Martin Lifka
Sales Austria
martin.lifka@flybgd.com
Martin has always dreamed of flying and loves the mountains. He spent many years flying RC sailplanes, kite surfing, and is a Ironman triathlete which led him to hike and fly. Martin is a professional photographer and marketing specialist acting as a consultant, photographer and coves sales in Austria. Martin lives near Vienna, AU.
Martin WRIGHT
Administration/Marketing
Martin@flybgd.com
Although Martin is not a qualified Paragliding Pilot yet, he is passionate and enjoys participating in many sports like Scuba Diving, Skiing, Squash & Fitness Training. Previously a Professional DJ / Producer, Martin now heads up our Sales Team based at the BGD office in France.
Jo MACLEOD
Office France
Jo@flybgd.com
Jo is our guru and a true encyclopedia. Previously working in the yachting industry, she now works in our BGD office in France looking after everything from administration and sales through to company accounts
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.
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 Irena has worked as wood technology engineer for 25 years. She loves the great outdoors and nothing beats a beautiful landscape, but she feels most connected to nature through her sports – paragliding, mountaineering, skiing, cycling and surfing.