The Parachute

Have you ever wondered how human beings came up with the parachute? Did it involve a few very brave but very dumb people jumping off high places holding a bedsheet trying to fly or float? Would you believe me if I told you, that yes, that’s basically it? Well, it is. But that is not the whole story, and I wouldn’t be writing about it if it was. With that being said, let’s get into the fun filled (mostly) death defying history of jumping off of high things and out of perfectly good airplanes.

Let’s start with the first documented idiot (or genius) who jumped off a high thing and lived: Abbas ibn Firnas or Armen Firman. You will notice I gave two names there (you are so smart), because those two names could be the same person OR could be two different people. Historians can’t sort that bit out but we will tell the story as if they are one person for the sake of simplicity. Around 875CE in Cordoba, Armen Firman was said to have fixed a sheet or cloak around himself supported with wooden struts and jumped from a tower. He didn’t fly as he wanted, but the sheet slowed himself down enough that the was surprisingly unhurt. We don’t have much detail more than that, but it’s the first documented example, and it’s a fun one to picture in your head and an easy start to the article.

So, let’s move to a true parachute like device. The first what you, dear readers, would call a parachute was designed and sketched in Renaissance Italy. The sketch shows a man floating from the sky with a conical shaped parachute-like device allowing him to descend. Although its just a sketch, based on the size of the parachute compared to the man, historians believe he would have gone splat. Then comes in the well-known inventor and polymath, Leonardo da Vinci, who sketched a parachute design of his own. Leo’s chute was much larger and better ratioed to the man, and has since been successfully tested in the 2000s. There is no conclusive evidence that shows Leo ever tested his parachute unfortunately. Now comes a Frenchmen named Louis-Sébastien Lenormand. Lenormand jumped off a high building in 1783 and survived to tell the tale. His parachute was a little different, basically two umbrellas put together; he even coined the word ‘parachute’ that we use today. Generally, human beings are pretty predictable, when someone does something, someone else comes along and has to do it better. Because aviation technology started to rapidly develop in the 18th century, balloons became a thing, specifically, hot air balloons that people would ride in. So, in 1797, some guy named André-Jacques Garnerin had to outdo Lenormand, and cut away his hot air balloon from the basket over Paris at 3,200 feet, surviving using a parachute to slow his descent.

So, side note, I know we have been talking about successful parachute designs or jumps, but let’s talk about one of, if not, the most famous parachute fails. In 1912, tailor Franz Reichelt leapt from the Eiffel Tower in Paris to his death while attempting to successfully test a personal parachute that could be worn as clothes. Why is this failed attempt so famous? Well, first, his last words were “See you soon.” I mean, when those are your last words while testing a parachute, people are going to use it as a punchline. Second, his attempt and subsequent death was filmed and you can still find the footage online today. It's pretty grainy and is in black in white, it was filmed in 1912, but it’s an example of immortalizing the unfortunate side of innovation on film before the internet.

Ok, now we are getting to the good stuff, let’s talk about the event that made the parachute a ubiquitous part of aviation, a little thing called the First World War. WW1 led to massive innovations in aviation technology, with planes going from flying for a mere 10 or so seconds in 1904 to bombing raids of front-line forces in multi-engine aircraft by the end of the war in 1918. When the war began in 1914, planes had little use other than as observation devices but military thinkers quickly saw the use of planes as an offensive tool. Air forces started outfitting planes with guns, bombs, cameras, and eventually, parachutes. The Central Powers, specifically the Imperial German Air Force, were quick to see the advantage of their pilots not dying unnecessarily when they could just jump out of a rapidly crashing plane instead. The Allies, though, were a bit slower to adopt. There is a historical rumor that the Allied Command were worried that if they outfitted their pilots with parachutes, they would jump out instead of fighting or flying the aircraft back, even when damaged. The reality is that the command staff didn’t understand pilot needs and were relying on an outdated view that all pilots just needed improvements to weapons and plane durability to survive.

Then comes the Second World War. WW2 saw even further innovations, no longer were flimsy biplanes the normal aircraft in sophisticated air forces (some smaller countries still fielded the biplane but they were reserved for specialty roles in most air forces). Now, these sleek mono-wing planes, flying hundreds of miles an hour, could obliterate each other with ease. Pilots had the ability to “bail out” or jump from a stricken plane and try to return to friendly lines to fight another day. Most pilots and crew of planes were outfitted with a parachute and highly encouraged to save themselves if necessary, contrasting heavily with the attitude of First World War command staff. The parachute also became an experimental form of military doctrine. All sides in the war deployed and utilized new “Paratroopers.” These airborne forces would jump out of airplanes using a parachute to land behind enemy front lines or in areas uncontested by the enemy so that they could quicky seize ground or outmaneuver a foe. There were airborne operations in all major theatres of the conflict, and countries like Greece, Tunisia, Italy, France, Holland, and Norway saw airborne soldiers dropped on their soil. WW2 created heroes out of Allied Airborne operations and Divisions like the 101st Airborne even have had an critically acclaimed series on HBO created about them 60 years after the war ended (go watch Band of Brothers, it’s pretty cool if you like that sort of thing).

After the war, the public thought parachutes were no longer reserved for idiotic (genius) people jumping off high things or out of perfectly good airplanes. They figured if the US Army could train farm boys from Nebraska to use them, then they couldn’t be that unsafe. Now, we have modern day skydiving and countless Hollywood movies showing that anyone could jump out of an plane using a parachute and (probably) live to tell the tale.