Cookie Consent by Free Privacy Policy website Origins and history of the parachute | Dreavel
Origins and history of the parachute
  • March 17, 2020
  • Riccardo
  • 6697
Outdoor activities

Origins and history of the parachute

As we have seen, the parachute is that particular equipment consisting of fabrics or synthetic materials, which ensured through specific belts and slings to a person (in certain cases also to an object), allows controlled free fall, safely and without damage even if coming from great heights.

In purely technical terms, the parachute is an "aerodynamic decelerator capable of imprinting a body subjected to free fall in the atmosphere at full speed, a force contrary to gravitational attraction, slowing its descent to the ground through an aerodynamic resistance in the atmospheric aeriform fluid".

The first description of an instrument with the purpose of softening falls and that resembles a modern parachute is of late XV° Century. The drawing, a sort of draft of a project kept at the British Library in London, is by an anonymous Italian author and shows a man hanging from a small parachute of conical shape. The estimated date is 1470.

A few years later, presumably in 1485, the famous drawing by Leonardo da Vinci, preserved in the Codex Atlanticus, shows a pyramid-shaped parachute made of starched linen to increase its rigidity. Probably, like many other inventions by Leonardo, it was never made by his author or at least it is not recorded in the chronicles of the time.

For the first experimental attempts to use a parachute we have to wait three centuries, with the French Louis-Sebastién Lenormand who in December 1783 parachuted from the observatory of Montpellier. Among the crowd of spectators there was also a certain Monsieur Montgolfier... A few years later it was his compatriot, André-Jacques Garnerin, who first conceived a silk parachute, without a wooden frame and suitable for launching from an object in flight. Garnerin in fact launched in 1797 from a balloon at an altitude of about 900 meters. He is therefore attributed the invention of the hemispherical parachute.

In the early years of the XX° Century Gleb Kotelnikov, a Russian soldier, invented a parachute backpack, which could be opened both by hand and with a rope bound and patented in 1912 in France.

In the same year monsieur Franz Reichelt, known as the "flying tailor", threw himself from the Eiffel Tower in a suit of his own invention that should have slowed his fall. Despite the opinion of the many people who did not advise to engage in such a feat, he did not want to hear reason and unfortunately died crashing to the ground.

Also in 1912 there was the first launch from a plane in flight by a captain of the U.S. Army, A. Berry, who launched near Saint Louis in the USA.

Origins and history of the parachute

After the great Leonardo da Vinci, another contribution from Italy could not be missing. Lieutenant Colonel Prospero Ferri designed the Salvator parachute in 1926. These are the years in which numerous studies and experiences lead to the realization of effective and safe parachutes, so much so that during the Second World War they were used not only as a rescue system, but also for launching military units in the combat zone.

It was only after the two Great Wars that sport parachuting was born and that the discipline underwent a significant development, so much so that in 1963 the first Parafoil parachute was made by the American Domina Jalbert. Applying and improving Francis Rogallo's theories, he achieved what was later judged to be particularly suitable for sporting activity.

Generally a parachute consists of a braking surface (sail) that is connected by several ropes. The latter shall in turn be assembled in suspenders in a sling suitable for securing the person or object being transported. The parachute is then completed by the containment bag, the opening system and the possible presence of safety systems.

The material usually used for the construction of the parachute and its components is the polyamide. From the origins to the post-war period, the sails were generally made of silk, while cotton was used for the bags and slings. The parachute is also equipped with a safety system called "one shot", which allows you to quickly disengage the straps and avoid being dragged by the parachute after landing in case of strong wind. The same is true when you land in the water, you can unhook before the impact to prevent the sail from dragging the parachutist down once wet.

The parachutes differ mainly according to the intended use, the shape of the sail and the opening system of which they are equipped.

Origins and history of the parachute

The veil allows to distinguish three types:

- Hemispherical shell 
It is of the "braking" type and has a zero or strongly reduced maneuverability. Its use is restricted to the military field for low-altitude launches or the launch of materials.

- Indentation of the cap
It's a variant of the one described above, conceptually similar but it differs for a central rope that makes the top of the cap fall down. In this way the air passing from the hole to the top generates a lot of lift and allows to create much smaller caps with the same braking power. Due to their small size they are particularly used as emergency parachutes in paragliding, hang gliding and free flying in general.

- With wingspan profile
It is of the "planante" type, it allows a remarkable maneuverability that has made it preferable in the playful or sporty employment regarding the two previous ones.

According to the opening system we find:

- Automatic opening system
It consists of a belt of cotton and nylon antibruciating about 4 m long, This constraint rope is connected at one end of the sail by means of a programmed rupture belt coupling and at the other to a carabiner to be secured to the carrier from which the parachutist or the material is launched. At the time of launch, the rope pulls the parachute out of the bag and separates from it when it is completely extracted, remaining attached to the carrier, while the flow of air opens the parachute.

- Manual opening system
There are two types.
A handle, in which the bag containing the parachute is kept closed by a stop connected by a cable to a handle, which when pulled causes the bag to open and exit a pilot that once inserted into the airflow pulls the sail of the parachute.
The other variant is by hand deploy extractor in which, as for the parachute with automatic opening, at the apex of the sail is secured a smaller parachute that is carefully folded and placed on the outside of the bag. This is extracted manually and exposed to the airflow when opening the parachute and, thanks to the air flow that runs over it, the belt goes into traction and frees a plug that allows the opening of the dorsal sac and pulls out completely the bag containing the sail allowing then the opening.