david barrish story3

In 1966, NASA was trying to finalize its choice for recovering the capsule of the Apollo space shuttle. For the next two years, David worked hard on his project, trying to convince NASA of its benefits over the Rogallo design. 'Francis Rogallo came to the wind tunnel one day during my tests', remarks David. 'He didn’t say anything, but seemed very interested. In fact, we had both constructed what would later be called a paraglider. The Air Force had organized a demonstration day for the different projects in California. It was there that the glide ratio of 4.2 of my wing was officially measured.'
But a week after the demonstration, NASA HQ totally abandoned the idea of using parachutes. 'They change their mind sometimes!', David comments with a rye smile. 'Now, thirty years on, NASA has returned to the use of parachutes. The most recent, the X34 or "space life boat", designed for recovering the Space Shuttle crews, is 30 metres across. The same size as Dave Barish’s design from 1966!
"When the contract was terminated I just gave up,' recalls David. 'As far as parachutes are concerned, I have never thought that I designed anything which was really much better than those of Jalbert or Snyder. There were already 30 or 40 companies and as many legal fights. My whole professional career has been rooted in subsonic and supersonic aerodynamics. In the science of low speed flight, there has been little innovation in the last 100 years. Most of what we need to know today has already been written in the books of Ludwig Prandtl, of the German school of aerodynamics. "Slope soaring" was a hobby. In order to develop it, I would have had to dedicate myself to it full-time. I had other inventions which I didn't want to neglect.'
---Closed cells, the profile, trim tabs, spinnaker fabric, flaps, 8 m lines, high aspect ratios, launch techniques, tree landings, the paramotor… it all existed as long ago as the '60s! But the explosion in popularity of the sport wouldn’t happen for another 20 years. During the 1980s, David Barish manufactured another paraglider with semi-closed cells, and then a hang glider for his son. Then, one summer's day in 1993, whilst driving near the site of Ellensville, just outside New York, David spotted thirty paragliders in the air, and suddenly realized that slope soaring had grown into a huge sport. His interest was rekindled.