Himalayan high: Paragliding in Himachal

Paragliders taking their flight at the clear sky in the Himalayan valley, Himachal Pradesh.

Paragliding is a 21st century recreational and competitive adventure sport. Though discovered in 20th century the early 60s thanks to this great invention of the lightweight, free-flying, foot launched glider aircraft. The pilot sits in a harness suspended below a fabric wing comprising a large number of interconnected baffled cells. The wing shape of this genius craft is maintained by the suspension lines, the pressure of air entering vents in the front of the wing, and the aerodynamic forces of the atmosphere and air pressure outside of it.

The lack of an engine does not mean short run time, as most of the gliders love gliding for hours and cover tens of kilometers. There are other set of skills that comes with experience and practice such as the correct exploitation of sources of lift, the pilot may gain more height and aspire to climb to altitudes of few thousand meters.

Since 1954, when Walter Neumark predicted (in an article in Flight magazine) a time when a glider pilot would be "able to launch himself by running over the edge of a cliff or down a slope the para troupers have come a long way. There are many other activities since the invention of a glider such as Hang gliding, Powered-paragliding, speed riding or speed flying with para-gliders of reduced size, kite skiing, kite surfing on a kite board, Para motoring on a purpose built 3 wheeled cart, kite land-boarding on an all-terrain mountain land board, kite skating on all-terrain roller skates, kite boating on a boat, snow kiting on skis or snowboards.


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