CHAPTER 1 PERSONNEL PARACHUTE FAMILIARIZATION

CHAPTER 1 PERSONNEL PARACHUTE FAMILIARIZATION Learning Objective: Upon completion of this chapter, you will be able to recognize and understand the history, components, and publications used to maintain personnel emergency parachute assemblies. The word parachute is, in the modern sense, derived from the Italian word parare, meaning to protect or shield from, and the French word chute, meaning a fall or quick descent—literally, “to protect from a fall.” As early as the year 1300, Chinese experimenters are reported to have jumped off the Great Wall with devices re- sembling umbrellas. In the year 1495, the great genius, artist, and inventor, Leonardo da Vinci, sketched a parachute design to be made of caulked linen that would permit a gentle descent to earth. About a century later, Fausto Veranzio described and sketched a parachute design consisting of a four-poled square frame covered with fabric, which he claimed could be used to escape from tall, burning buildings. Since man, not yet airborne, had no use for a lifesaving device of this nature at that time, parachutes were considered novelties or items of amusement, and interest in them gradually lessened. It was not until the invention of the first aerial balloon that interest in the parachute was renewed. As a result of the balloon, the parachute became less of a toy and more a means of escape. In the late 1700’s, the Montgolfier brothers had invented a balloon that would stay aloft. This balloon was kept in the air by burning bundles of straw beneath the bag to furnish the necessary supply of hot air. If the fabric caught fire, the flight was abruptly ended. This meant that those who went up on such flights had to have a means of escape. Those early days of ballooning saw excursions of curiosity into the use of parachutes by early balloonists such as the Montgolfiers, Blanchard, Martyn, Arnold, Appleby, Hampton, and others. Some parachute drops, using animals as passengers, were successfully made. The first human parachute descent was accomplished by the famous French balloonist Andre-Jacques Garnerin, on 22 October 1798. This historic event took place over Monceau Park, near Paris, when Garnerin released himself and his semirigid parachute from the balloon at an altitude of 6,000 feet. On 14 July 1808, a famous Polish balloonist, Jodaki Kuparento, was the first man to have his life saved from a flaming bag of hot air when, over Warsaw, remnants of his burning balloon blew into the balloon’s net structure and blos- somed into a parachute, lowering him to the ground safely. However, the need for a foolproof parachute-whose main role at that time was its use as an added thrill to balloon ascensions-was not strong enough to stimulate a great deal of inventive effort until nearly 100 years later. Hence, with the coming of the air age in 1903, when the Wright brothers made their spectacular flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, there came also an era of experimentation with parachutes designed for this new type of flying machine. Albert Berry is credited with being the first person to successfully jump from an aircraft using a parachute. This jump was made on March 1, 1912, from a Benoist Pusher Biplane, at Jefferson Barracks, not far from Kinloch Park “Aero- drome,” St. Louis. The parachute was an unbleached muslin cotton parachute, 36 feet in diameter. Its suspension lines terminated into a trapeze bar and strap arrangement. The parachute assembly was packed into a cone attached under the airplane. It was retained within the metal cone by a series of break cords. The weight of Berry’s falling body pulled the canopy and lines from the container. Many others, using makeshift or experimental parachutes, made descents before World War I, but parachutes still were not considered essential equipment for military aviators. As World War I progressed, the resultant mortality rate among pilots was very high. However, the lives of over 800 balloonist 1-1