Inventor of the modern parachute

[skypuppy 1]

Welly

William Newell was my grand father

You mentioned your grandmother also jumped. What was her name? And do you have any articles or pictures you could scan of your grandparents?

That would be great

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

[Bob_Church 7]

Ed Vickery, the man who developed the Paracommander and was the first to land a ram air canopy spoke at our 2014 Bidwell reunion, as did Mike Todd.
That's going to be a tough afternoon to beat with upcoming reunions.

http://www.mywvhome.com/more/reunion2.html

[BillHulsizerToo 1]

On 5/14/2016 at 10:59 AM, riggerrob said:

1971.  My grandpa invented sliders for the US Air Force.   www.PrototypeParachutes.com.  His was the first successful drop.  He slid wooden rings up the cords to the top, to slow down the opening.
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Yes, Domina Jalbert started building kites as a boy.
During World War 2, he worked in the balloon industry. His barrage balloons always "kited" at a positive angle of attack (nose up) to improve lift and stability. Many things he learned (e.g. internal bracing) in the balloon business were later applied to ram-air kites. Jalbert's first few ram-air prototypes were all kites.

It was only late in his career that Jalbert partnered with Professor Nicoladius (sp?) to build powered parachutes. Prof. N. worked at University of Notre Dame and his main skill seemed to be gaining government grants from ARPA and the CIA.
While the first ram-air parachutes were test-jumped during the late 1960s, it took another decade for Snyder, Yarbenet, etc. to make them open reliably.

 

 

[BillHulsizerToo 1]

On 9/14/2016 at 11:38 AM, Bob_Church said:

Ed Vickery, the man who developed the Paracommander and was the first to land a ram air canopy spoke at our 2014 Bidwell reunion, as did Mike Todd.
That's going to be a tough afternoon to beat with upcoming reunions.

http://www.mywvhome.com/more/reunion2.html

Show people www.PrototypeParachutes.com.  The prototype of the paracommander is in the pictures.  The Air Force Museum has the prototype now.