| Firebird USA LLC | |
| Type: | Privately held company |
| Foundation: | 1995 |
| Founder: | Bernd Pohl |
| Hq Location City: | Eloy, Arizona |
| Hq Location Country: | United States |
| Industry: | Aerospace |
| Products: | Parachutes |
Firebird USA LLC (formerly Firebird Skydiving GmbH and Firebird Sky Sports AG) is an American parachute manufacturer based in Eloy, Arizona.[1] The company also has locations in Germany, Sri Lanka, and the Czech Republic, and was formerly based in Füssen and Bitburg, Germany.[1] The company specializes in the design and manufacture of parachutes and at one time also constructed paragliders and parafoil kites.[2] [3] [4]
Firebird was founded as Performance Variable by Bernd Pohl in 1995.[5] [6] In 2017 skydivers Sara and Steve Curtis, and George Reuter purchased Firebird.[5] After previously manufacturing its products in Germany and the Czech Republic, in 2018, the company moved its production facility to Eloy, Arizona,[5] a city that has the world's biggest drop zone.[7]
In the mid-2000s, as Firebird Sky Sports AG, the company produced a range of 11 different models of paragliders, including the beginner Firebird Sub-One and Z-One, the intermediate Grid and Hornet, the competition Debute and Tribute as well as the two-place Choice Zip Bi, that incorporated zippers to reduce its wing area.[2] [8] Once one of the world's leading manufacturers of paragliders,[2] the company stopped producing them around 2013 to concentrate on parachutes for military and civil applications, along with reserve parachutes.[9] Today, Firebird manufactures custom parachutes and related products, such as tandem rigs for parachutes, reserve parachutes, harness-and-container systems, and magnetic riser covers.[1] [5] [7]
Summary of paragliders built by Firebird, introduced in the mid-2000s and since out of production: