Abstract: A parachute having a reefing device for securing together normally spaced parts of the canopy to provide a canopy that is reduced in size by the substantial elimination of a reefed section thereof as an effective drag area, and including a release device for releasing the reefed section of the canopy after initial parachute development to thereby permit the reefed section to inflate in full deployment of the canopy. The parachute may be conventional; a single skin gliding parachute having one or more wing sections wholly or in part reefed; or a multicellular double-skin ram-air inflated gliding parachute with some of the central cells reefed.