skyesspot 0 #1 April 3, 2003 Is it true that the parachute was invented before the airplane? Yes. The parachute was around more than one hundred years before the airplane. Frenchman Louis Lenormand invented the parachute in 1783 as a means of saving people who had to jump from burning buildings. Another Frenchman, Jacques Garnerin, gave the first public exhibition of parachuting when he leapt from a hot air balloon three thousand feet in the air. Parachutes were used during World War I, but not to escape from airplanes. They were used in observation balloons. It wasn't until 1922 (two decades after airplanes were invented) that the parachute was used to bail out from an airplane.Life is too short. Don't sweat the small stuff. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jlmiracle 7 #2 April 3, 2003 Did you verify this on Snopes.com? They are the information news source for dz.com. but seriously this is interesting, (if its really true) JudyBe kinder than necessary because everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
skyesspot 0 #3 April 3, 2003 Just did a quick check and didn't find anything... Life is too short. Don't sweat the small stuff. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest #4 April 3, 2003 Yeah, it's true, but Jacques Garnerin had to practically be compelled to do it at gunpoint after fleecing spectators at several "aborted" jump exhibits. "The mouse does not know life until it is in the mouth of the cat." Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jerry81 10 #5 April 3, 2003 Interesting...I always thought it was Da Vinci who invented the parachute. Although some might claim it was Faust Vrancic from Croatia who did it. Both of them lived more than two centuries earlier than this Frenchman. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
skypuppy 1 #6 April 3, 2003 Actually the Germans pilots used parachutes in the last year of the First World War - it was only the Allies that didn't think it was a good idea to equip their pilots with a way to get out of a burning plane relatively safely.... The first parachute descent from a plane was Albert Berry March 1912.... then Rodman Law on April 13, 1912, Grant Morton on April 28, and on May 24, Charles Saunders was the first to jump from a plane in Canada.... The first European to jump from a plane was Adolphe Pegoud (Aug 25, 1913) -- and HE ALSO FLEW THE PLANE... At 750 feet he put the plane into a dive, stood up and dumped his parachute.... The plane did a slow loop, and lightly crash-landed not far from Pegoud, sustaining only minor damage... Throughout the First World War there were parachutists actively working on systems for the Allies but they never got the muckie-mucks to approve them until right before the end of the war... The silent movie WINGS has some interesting shots of emergency jumps from German observation balloons....If some old guy can do it then obviously it can't be very extreme. Otherwise he'd already be dead. Bruce McConkey 'I thought we were gonna die, and I couldn't think of anyone Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
kiltboy 0 #7 April 3, 2003 Not sure if either of those two put their designs to the test. Certainly they had drawings. David Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
