1. History of the Parachute History of Parachutes

2. "Minds are like parachutes, they only function when they are open."James Dewar Engineering allows you to imagine Parachutes had been imagined and sketched by Leonardo Da Vinci in (1452-1519) In 2000, Adrian Nichols built a modern version of Da Vinci’s parachute.

3. The First Parachutes Croatian Faust Vrancic constructed a device based on Da Vinci's drawing. He jumped from a Venice tower in 1617 wearing a rigid- framed parachute

4. First Parachutes Without Frames In 1797 (October 22), Andrew Garnerin was the first person recorded to jump with a parachute without a rigid frame. He jumped from hot air balloons as high as 8,000 feet in the air. Garnerin also designed the first air vent in a parachute intended to reduce oscillations.

5. Early Parachute Design When opened, the Andrew Garnerin parachute resembled a huge umbrella about thirty feet in diameter. It was made of canvas and was attached to a hydrogen balloon.

6. Parachute Trivia In 1887, Captain Thomas Baldwin invented the first parachute harness.

7. Knapsack Parachute In 1911, a Russian inventor Gleb Kotelnikov invented the first knapsack parachute

8. Jumping from Airplanes Two parachuters claim to be the first person to jump from an airplane, both Grant Morton and Captain Albert Berry parachuted from an airplane in 1911.

9. Freefalling In 1914, Georgia "Tiny" Broadwick made the first freefall jump. Freefall occurs before a parachute is opened and a jumper is accelerating due to gravity

10. Parachute Design Today Parachutes are not always round. This type of parachute has seven cells and is rectangular The size and the number of cells can vary between parachutes

11. Lots of People Jumping from Airplanes! Sometimes people like to make parachute formations This one is the world record. It had 100 parachuters making a diamond

12. Reducing Stopping Distance When vehicles are traveling very fast, brakes are sometimes not enough to stop them The Space Shuttle needs a drag parachute to stop it

13. Parachutes on Planes NASA has developed a parachute system for small planes that will deploy if the plane is in danger of crashing

14. Parachutes on Mars A parachute was used to land the Rover on Mars The impact speed was still over 100 km/hr so the rover had to be encased in balloons to protect it from damage

15. Parachutes of the Future Sport skydivers are working on landing in a wingsuit. They still use a parachute at the end of their jump However, no-parachute wingsuit landings are being developed by the military