Zing 2 #1 October 22, 2007 Today is Monday, Oct. 22, the 295th day of 2007. There are 70 days left in the year. Today's Highlight in History: On this date: On Oct. 22, in 1797, French balloonist Andre-Jacques Garnerin made the first parachute descent, landing safely from a height of about 3,000 feet over Paris. Party on boys and girls.Zing Lurks Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
davidlayne 5 #2 October 22, 2007 Didn't Bozo pack for him?I don't care how many skydives you've got, until you stepped into complete darkness at 800' wearing 95 lbs of equipment and 42 lbs of parachute, son you are still a leg! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JSBIRD 1 #3 October 22, 2007 QuoteToday is Monday, Oct. 22, the 295th day of 2007. There are 70 days left in the year. Today's Highlight in History: On this date: On Oct. 22, in 1797, French balloonist Andre-Jacques Garnerin made the first parachute descent No dig on you, Z Man, but I don't believe that to be true. First parachute decent from an aircraft? Yes, but not first decent...that had been going on for some time with the Chinese, long before. Yes, B.A.S.E. jumping began before Skydiving! BASE359"Now I've settled down, in a quiet little town, and forgot about everything" Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bozo 0 #4 October 22, 2007 Quote Didn't Bozo pack for him? Ya know that aint funny , David. Everybody knows youre 87 years older than I am. bozo Pain is fleeting. Glory lasts forever. Chicks dig scars. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
howardwhite 5 #5 October 22, 2007 Oct. 20, 1922: Harold R. Harris is the first man to be saved by a freefall parachute jump from a disabled airplane. http://www.ascho.wpafb.af.mil/birthplace/HARRIS.HTM HW (Of course we should not forget what Wikipedia reports for Oct. 22: "4004 BC - The universe is created. This is according to the 17th-century chronology of the history of the world formulated by James Ussher the Anglican Archbishop of Armagh.") Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
NickDG 23 #6 October 22, 2007 Zing, just change it to "first parachute decent from a flying machine" and you'll be spot on! Yes, the ancient Chinese used small parachutes mainly for aerobatic displays but as such they weren't really life saving devices. However, there is written evidence that some particularly nasty Asian warlords used larger parachutes to throw vanquished enemies from less than vertical tall cliffs. The idea was the parachute would somewhat retard their decent while slowly turning them into hamburger as scraped along the walls. You've got to love a humble winner . . . The first "real" parachutes appeared in around the 15th century. And while every skydiver learns about Di Vinci and the parachute he sketched in his Codex Atlanticus the thing you have ask yourself is why? Since the first hot air balloon was over 200 years away why did anyone need a parachute? The answer is throughout Europe of that time stonemasons had learned how to build stone towers that sometimes reached two to three hundred feet tall. Rich noble men lived in these towers and like billionaires of today the game they played was my tower is bigger than your tower. The problem was these towers where heated with wood, furnished with straw, and lighted by fire bearing torches. And it was here the world first saw "towering infernos" and people actually jumping to their deaths to escape heat, smoke, and flame. It didn’t take long for young entrepreneurs, looking to make a quick buck, realized some type of life saving device was needed. In 1617 Faust Veransio demonstrated a parachute he designed in front of 3000 people in Venice, Italy. The jump was only half successful as the leap form a tall stone tower resulted in his death some days later from injuries he probably would have survived today. All the aviation texts from the early 20th century make mention of these "tower jumpers" as a group while the later ones seem to focus on the parachute from WWI on. So who truly made the "first" successful parachute decent is, so far, lost in history, but it surely wasn't that French guy in 1797 . . . NickD BASE 194 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Tink1717 2 #7 October 23, 2007 Hey, can you give me a citation for that?Skydivers don't knock on Death's door. They ring the bell and runaway... It really pisses him off. -The World Famous Tink. (I never heard of you either!!) AA #2069 ASA#33 POPS#8808 Swooo 1717 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Zing 2 #8 October 23, 2007 Hey man, Twardo told me about it ... I think he was there on the rigging crew. He probably jumped second, and that's why nobody remembers him for it. Pity really, he could a been somebody ... he could a been a contender. Actually, I pulled that blurb of of one of those "On This Day In History," columns on a newswire.Zing Lurks Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
airtwardo 6 #9 October 28, 2007 Quote Hey man, Twardo told me about it ... I think he was there on the rigging crew. He probably jumped second, and that's why nobody remembers him for it. Pity really, he could a been somebody ... he could a been a contender. Actually, I pulled that blurb of of one of those "On This Day In History," columns on a newswire. Actually...I was supposed to make the jump, but as the 22nd of Oct. is my BIRTHDAY, I was in a corner bar, busy gettin' BUSY the night before, and missed the load! ~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~ Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
tbrown 26 #10 October 30, 2007 Unfortunately, Garnerin was also the first skydiver to go in, which he did some time later after making several jumps with his WOODEN parachute. That's right folks, there was a time they actually built the things outta wood.... Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity ! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
