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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.
Parapentes com personalidade
Começou como uma pequena empresa trabalhando em uma garagem, mas a Bruce Goldsmith Design é hoje um dos principais fabricantes de parapentes de qualidade e equipamentos relacionados com parapente. Inspirado e dirigido por Bruce, o departamento de P&D é baseado no sul da França, onde o sol sempre brilha; a distribuição é na Áustria, e a fábrica está no Sri Lanka.
A família BGD é forte e estamos todos ligados pelo nosso amor ao parapente. Nossa missão é compartilhar nosso esporte com amigos e familiares. Nós amamos a sensação de estar conectado ao ar e nossos produtos são projetados com isso em mente. Produzimos produtos seguros, divertidos e modernos, que sempre são entregues com a pilotagem refinada e as qualidades inovadoras pelas quais os projetos do Bruce se tornaram renomados.
Diretores
BGD leva o nome do Bruce, Diretor Geral e chefe da equipe de desenvolvimento. Voar está no DNA de Bruce. Ele aprendeu a voar de asa delta como estudante de engenharia no Imperial College de Londres nos anos 80 e rapidamente saltou para o topo da asa delta britânica, vencendo a Superliga em 1991. Ele foi da equipe de asa-delta inglesa por uma década, desde 1986, e foi duas vezes campeão britânico de asa-delta. A partir de 1989, ele também participou da equipe britânica de parapente, tornando-se três vezes campeão britânico de parapente e classificou-se como piloto WPRS # 1 e campeão mundial em 2007.
Nascido em Londres, Bruce vive no sul da França com sua esposa Arna e três filhos. Membro fundador da Airwave Paragliders e Ozone, ele projetou para a Advance por dois anos antes de fundar a BGD em 2012. Escritor, palestrante e educador, Bruce tem uma coluna regular na revista Cross Country e é presidente da APPI (Associação de Pilotos de Parapente e Instrutores).
Arna foi a primeira mulher islandesa a voar de asa-delta, quando começou aos 17 anos, seduzida pelo pára-quedismo do pai, piloto de asa-delta. Ele comprou para ela um Wills Wing Harrier e foi amor à primeira vista! Arna competiu em várias Copas Celtas na Irlanda e no País de Gales, saindo com as estrelas da Liga Britânica, mas ela não conhecia Bruce até um encontro casual em um estacionamento no sul da França em 1997.
Quando o piloto de teste de Bruce caiu e destruiu sua nova Airwave Magic de competição, ele emprestou o parapente que iniciou sua carreira de parapente. Arna e Bruce se casaram em 1997 e Arna voou muito, acompanhando Bruce por até 14 competições por ano. O voo ficou no banco de trás por alguns anos, enquanto se concentrava na família, mas agora as crianças crescem e ela está de volta aos céus, onde ela pertence, em uma Magic.
A carreira de piloto de Christoph foi motivada em parte por sua namorada da época, em 2002. Ele aprendeu a praticar parapente perto de sua casa em Wolfsberg, Áustria, e instantaneamente se apaixonou pelo esporte, pilotando seu parapente Airwave em alguns grandes voos XCs e quebrando o barreira de 100km por uma grande margem. Ele passou a competir na liga principal da Áustria. Engenheiro de profissão, sua vida profissional o envolveu em grandes projetos de construção, incluindo a construção de pontes entre a Áustria e a Sérvia para a PORR, uma das maiores empresas de construção da Áustria.
Em 2012, rolou uma atração por uma vida diferente e ele deixou o mundo da construção, uniu forças com Bruce e Arna para um novo projeto excitante - fundar a BGD. Christoph ainda vive em Wolfsberg, com sua esposa Mila e seu filho Maximillian, onde gerencia a distribuição européia da BGD a partir do escritório e centro de distribuição da Áustria.
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.”
Agentes de vendas
Blaise Brogan
Sales Team Leader
blaise@flybgd.com
Blaise learned to fly in 2009 and soon after became involved in guiding and social media for PG/PPG brands. A former tree surgeon and windsurfing instructor he has always sought adventure. He works with RISE Paragliding in SIV and ACRO, and this role was instrumental in bringing about the EPIC FreeStyle. Blaise heads up BGD's sales team and looks after our UK sales.
Alex Schweig
Sales Austria
alex@flybgd.com
Born and raised in Peru but now based in the Austrian Alps, Alex is on a lifelong quest to discover and master all types of flying, from coastal soaring, to acro, hike and fly, and most recently, the Paragliding World Cup. An avid outdoor sportsman, he now manages BGD Sales in Austria where his colourful personality is a match for the most colourful brand out there!
Anna Darchenkova
Media Creator
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. . Anna is traveling all over the world with her paraglider. She is a highly skilled media creator.
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.
Val Tanniger
Sales Switzerland
valentin@flybgd.com
Valentin has been flying since the age of 21, first on planes, then moving to paragliders, drawn to it by the simplicity of an aircraft in a bag you can hike with. He loves flying vol-biv with friends, or combining it with skiing or biking – he is an avid cyclist. He studied geomorphology and is cares deeply about our environment.
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.
Equipe
Killian Kopczynski
Product designer
killian@flybgd.com
Killian is our in-house harness designer. He has been flying since the age of 15, encouraged by his father. He also has a younger brother who started flying at the age of 13 – you could say it's a family passion! He studied Industrial Engineering in Grenoble, specialising in materials strength and worked with the R&D team in the summer of 2022. He joined the R&D team full-time in 2023.
Kyle Mooney
R&D / PPG Team Pilot Leader
kyle@flybgd.com
Kyle started flying from his back yard with his father and paramotoring quickly took over his life. He is a paramotoring instructor in Florida, and works with BGD's R&D team in the development of paramotor wings. He also heads up the BGD team pilots on the paramotor side.
Lucas Bonin
R&D
lucas.bonin@flybgd.com
Lucas started paragliding when he was 15 years old. He is studying aerodynamics at ENAC, the Ecole Nationale de l'Aviation Civile (National Civil Aviation School) in Toulouse, to be an aerodynamic engineer or researcher. He's interested in all aircraft and how they fly, and works for BGD in research and development.
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.
Mídia
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 21st birthday gift that has lasted 30 years and counting. She now flies an Echo 2, 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.
Pilotos de teste
Pasquale Biondo
Paramotor test pilot
pas.biondo@gmail.com
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.
Wingmen
Franck Largeault
Branding/marketing
Franck learnt to fly after a bet with his brother in 2019 and immediately fell in love with the sport. He is a trail runner, father, and general outdoor enthusiast. He has already flown several nice triangles around his home site of Aix-les-Bains and plans to break the site distance record. He is a specialist in outdoor sports marketing strategy and helps BGD with branding, social media, and marketing.