IRVIN-GQ

IRVIN-GQ is a company based in Llangeinor, Wales, United Kingdom that designs, manufactures and supplies a range of parachutes and emergency, rescue and survival equipment to the military, coastguard and civilian aerospace markets. Its factory in Llangeinor employs around 250 people.

IRVIN-GQ, together with Aircraft Materials Limited and Advanced Inflatable Products of the UK, Para-Flite Inc. and Irvin Aerospace Inc. of the United States and Irvin Aerospace Canada Limited of Canada, forms Airborne Systems Group, a company wholly owned by Alchemy Partners.

The Irvin Airchute Company was founded in Buffalo, New York in 1919 by Leslie Irvin, who had made the world's first free-fall parachute jump in that year. In 1925 the Royal Air Force ordered Irvin Airchute Company parachutes for its crews. It was acquired by GQ Parachutes, founded in 1932 by James Gregory and Raymond Quilter, which since the 1930s has played a prominent role in the development of emergency escape parachutes.

Since 1991, the company has operated a specialised outsourced service facility, the Airborne Forces Parachute Support Unit (AFPSU), which repairs, maintains and packs all of the parachutes and related equipment for The Parachute Regiment of the British Army.

In December 2002 the company announced a £5 million investment programme including the creation of around 200 jobs and the move of its main UK production site from Blackmill in Bridgend to Llangeinor. In September 2006 the company formed part of a trade mission to China led by the then First Minister for Wales Rhodri Morgan. In January 2010 the company secured a £50 million contract with the French Ministry of Defence.

Co-located at Llangeinor with Irvin-GQ are:

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