Parachute. History of invention and production

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HISTORY OF TECHNOLOGY, TECHNOLOGY, OBJECTS AROUND US
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Parachute. History of invention and production

The history of technology, technology, objects around us

Directory / The history of technology, technology, objects around us

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Parachute (fr. parachute) - a device made of fabric, mainly in the form of a hemisphere, to which a suspension system or load is attached with straps. Serves to slow down the movement of an object in the air. Parachutes are used for jumping from aircraft (or from fixed objects) for the purpose of safe descent and landing of people (cargo), for braking aircraft during landing.

Parachute

Man has always wanted to fly. Well, or, given the bad experience of Icarus, at least it is safe to descend from a great height. There is evidence that the idea of a parachute came to the mind of inventors long before Leonardo da Vinci. However, it was Leonardo who drew a sketch of this device at the end of the XNUMXth century - a canvas stretched over a pyramidal frame. Cables were attached to the four corners of the pyramid, by which a man was holding. However, at that time no one dared to try this invention in practice.

da Vinci parachute drawing

But a century later, the Croatian inventor Faust Verancic (or, in Italian style, Fausto Veranzio), based on the sketch of da Vinci, began work on the project Homo Volans ("Man flying") and in 1617 safely descended on the dome from one of the Venetian towers .

Then the baton passed to the French. In 1783, Louis-Sebastian Lenormand successfully descended from a high tower on a four-meter structure resembling an umbrella. Lenormand called his apparatus a parachute, from para (against) and chute (fall). Two years later, his compatriot Jean-Pierre Blanchard conducted an experiment on a dog, dropping it by parachute from a balloon. Blanchard improved the design, abandoning the rigid frame. He also claimed that in 1793 he was the first to use a parachute as a means of emergency escape by jumping from a burning balloon, but due to the lack of witnesses, this fact remained unconfirmed.

The laurels of the first parachutist were received by another Frenchman - Andre-Jacques Garnerin, who on October 22, 1797 descended to earth from a height of 900 m on a seven-meter dome of his own design. The dome with the hanging basket was attached to the balloon, and at the right moment the aeronaut simply cut the fastening halyard. One of his next jumps, from a record height of 2300 m for that time, was observed by the famous French scientist Joseph Lalande, who drew attention to the strong "chatter". After landing, he carefully examined the structure of the canopy and advised to cut a small hole in the center, which greatly increased the stability of the descent.

Garnerin's first parachute

Over the next century, many inventors looked for ways to make jumping comfortable and safe. The basket was abandoned, and in 1887, US Army Captain Thomas Baldwin suggested using a suspension system very similar to the modern one.

In 1890, the next step was taken by two German aerial acrobats - Paul Lettmann and Kathy Paulus. They proposed two important improvements - a foldable parachute container and a pilot chute to speed up the opening process of the silk dome. True, these inventions were properly appreciated only after the advent of aviation. The last step was taken in 1911 by our compatriot Gleb Kotelnikov, who developed a backpack parachute.

Author: S.Apresov

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