Okla-homey
10/22/2007, 06:05 AM
October 22, 1797: The first parachutist
http://aycu05.webshots.com/image/32044/2003775720331138903_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2003775720331138903)
210 years ago today, The first parachute jump is made by Andre-Jacques Garnerin from a hydrogen balloon 3,200 feet above Paris.
Leonardo da Vinci conceived the idea of the parachute in his writings, and the Frenchman Louis-Sebastien Lenormand fashioned a kind of parachute out of two umbrellas and jumped from a tree in 1783, but Garnerin was the first to totally commit to the concept by designing and personally testing parachutes capable of slowing a human's fall from great heights.
http://aycu17.webshots.com/image/31856/2003783059682334463_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2003783059682334463)
Da Vinci's parachute concept, drawn c. 1486AD. In his notes, Leonardo remarks that, with a linen curtain shaped into a pyramid having a base 12 yards (about 7 metres) across and equally deep, if it is stiffly held open, "ognuno si potr gettare da qualsiasi altezza senza alcun rischio" (anyone can jump from no matter what height without any risk whatsoever).
Garnerin first conceived of the possibility of using air resistance to slow an individual's fall from a high altitude while a prisoner during the French Revolution. Although he never employed a parachute to escape from the high ramparts of the Hungarian prison where he spent three years, Garnerin never lost interest in the concept of the parachute.
In 1797, he completed his first parachute, a canopy 23 feet in diameter and attached to a basket with suspension lines.
http://aycu33.webshots.com/image/30472/2003739403905472539_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2003739403905472539)
On this day in 1797, Garnerin attached the parachute to a hydrogen balloon and ascended to an altitude of 3,200 feet. He then clambered into the basket and severed the parachute from the balloon.
As he failed to include an air vent at the top of the prototype, Garnerin oscillated wildly in his descent, but he landed shaken but unhurt half a mile from the balloon's takeoff site.
http://aycu09.webshots.com/image/30968/2003751075292823491_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2003751075292823491)
Modern parachute components. The vent at the apex makes the thing more stable by dampening oscillations during descent. Note: there is no pilot chute to extract the main canopy on static-line parachutes employed by the modern military. Instead, a line attached to the paratrooper and the jump aircraft extracts and deploys the canopy, then breaks away after the paratrooper falls a bit farther.
In 1799, Garnerin's wife, Jeanne-Genevieve, became the first female parachutist. In 1802, Garnerin made a spectacular jump from 8,000 feet during an exhibition in England.
Garnerin died in a construction accident while making a balloon in Paris. He was hit by a beam.
http://aycu11.webshots.com/image/29050/2003732485647057708_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2003732485647057708)
Modern military static-line parachute ops from a C-17. Your correspondent did this sort of thing...but didn't particularly enjoy it. Except the part after you land and discover no broken body parts.
http://aycu08.webshots.com/image/31967/2003770318657280065_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2003770318657280065)
http://aycu05.webshots.com/image/32044/2003775720331138903_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2003775720331138903)
210 years ago today, The first parachute jump is made by Andre-Jacques Garnerin from a hydrogen balloon 3,200 feet above Paris.
Leonardo da Vinci conceived the idea of the parachute in his writings, and the Frenchman Louis-Sebastien Lenormand fashioned a kind of parachute out of two umbrellas and jumped from a tree in 1783, but Garnerin was the first to totally commit to the concept by designing and personally testing parachutes capable of slowing a human's fall from great heights.
http://aycu17.webshots.com/image/31856/2003783059682334463_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2003783059682334463)
Da Vinci's parachute concept, drawn c. 1486AD. In his notes, Leonardo remarks that, with a linen curtain shaped into a pyramid having a base 12 yards (about 7 metres) across and equally deep, if it is stiffly held open, "ognuno si potr gettare da qualsiasi altezza senza alcun rischio" (anyone can jump from no matter what height without any risk whatsoever).
Garnerin first conceived of the possibility of using air resistance to slow an individual's fall from a high altitude while a prisoner during the French Revolution. Although he never employed a parachute to escape from the high ramparts of the Hungarian prison where he spent three years, Garnerin never lost interest in the concept of the parachute.
In 1797, he completed his first parachute, a canopy 23 feet in diameter and attached to a basket with suspension lines.
http://aycu33.webshots.com/image/30472/2003739403905472539_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2003739403905472539)
On this day in 1797, Garnerin attached the parachute to a hydrogen balloon and ascended to an altitude of 3,200 feet. He then clambered into the basket and severed the parachute from the balloon.
As he failed to include an air vent at the top of the prototype, Garnerin oscillated wildly in his descent, but he landed shaken but unhurt half a mile from the balloon's takeoff site.
http://aycu09.webshots.com/image/30968/2003751075292823491_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2003751075292823491)
Modern parachute components. The vent at the apex makes the thing more stable by dampening oscillations during descent. Note: there is no pilot chute to extract the main canopy on static-line parachutes employed by the modern military. Instead, a line attached to the paratrooper and the jump aircraft extracts and deploys the canopy, then breaks away after the paratrooper falls a bit farther.
In 1799, Garnerin's wife, Jeanne-Genevieve, became the first female parachutist. In 1802, Garnerin made a spectacular jump from 8,000 feet during an exhibition in England.
Garnerin died in a construction accident while making a balloon in Paris. He was hit by a beam.
http://aycu11.webshots.com/image/29050/2003732485647057708_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2003732485647057708)
Modern military static-line parachute ops from a C-17. Your correspondent did this sort of thing...but didn't particularly enjoy it. Except the part after you land and discover no broken body parts.
http://aycu08.webshots.com/image/31967/2003770318657280065_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2003770318657280065)