It is believed that Leonardo da Vinci invented the parachute 530 years ago, in 1483. Why he did this, no one knows. Leonardo himself apparently did not know this. After all, in those distant, distant times it was impossible to use a parachute, because there was nothing to fly then - no balloons, no aviation. And there was no landing force then either. Leonardo could only jump from different buildings, for example from Leaning Tower of Pisa. But why jump from it? For what? That is, the invention appeared before the need for it. Therefore, due to its uselessness, the parachute was forgotten for 300 years.

A parachute is a necessary thing

People remembered about the “anti-fall” device (and this is how the word “parachute” is translated) only in the 18th century, when the first hot air balloons appeared, which often fell along with their passengers. Parachutes were then made from flax, and although they were strong, they were heavy. They were tied to the bottom or side of the balloon. Later, the fabric began to be rubberized, and the parachute became even heavier. In addition, the folded parachute took up a lot of space. Therefore, when the first airplanes began to fly, parachutes were either not used or were stowed along the fuselage. In short, this thing used to be very inconvenient to use.

And so in 1911, an ordinary Russian actor of the St. Petersburg People's House Gleb Evgenievich Kotelnikov (1872–1944) came up with a parachute design that became popular throughout the world. Moreover, this design, with some minor changes, is still in use today.

Kotelnikov significantly reduced the weight of the parachute. He replaced heavy linen with strong but light silk. He sewed a thin elastic cable into the edge of the parachute, and divided the lines into two groups, which were attached to the shoulder girths of the harness. This allowed the parachutist to control the flight of his saving friend. People stopped floating aimlessly and limply in the air under the influence of the wind. It has even become possible to hold landing accuracy competitions.

And finally, Kotelnikov’s most important invention - he placed the parachute in a small metal backpack attached to the parachutist’s body. At the bottom of the backpack there was a special shelf, and under it there were strong springs that instantly threw the parachute out when the jumper pulled out the locking ring. The parachute has become maneuverable, compact and convenient.

Kotelnikov's backpack

Kotelnikov named the first parachute model RK-1, which meant “Kotelnikov’s Backpack”. A few years later he improved the RK-1, and the RK-2 and RK-3 appeared. The metal backpack was replaced with a canvas one in the form of an envelope, and there were also “honeycombs” that protected the lines from tangling. Modern parachutes have almost the same design.

To be sure of the reliability of the device, Gleb Evgenievich personally conducted numerous tests on smaller models. The rescue pack worked flawlessly!

A parachute in aviation is a harmful thing

Kotelnikov, of course, wanted to quickly register and put into production this important invention for aviation, which could save the lives of many pilots. But then he encountered the ruthless Russian bureaucratic system.

First, Gleb Evgenievich went to the Main Military Engineering Directorate. But the head of the department directly stated:

“A parachute in aviation is a harmful thing, since at the slightest danger pilots will escape by parachute, leaving the planes to die.”

Then Kotelnikov turned to the War Ministry. The inventor asked for subsidies to make an experimental parachute and conduct more serious tests. But even here he was refused, since one authoritative member of the commission believed that “the aviator’s legs would be torn off from the impact when the parachute opens.”

In 1912, Kotelnikov, with the help of St. Petersburg entrepreneur V. A. Lomach, was able to build two prototypes of his backpack parachute. Full-scale tests in the air were successfully carried out: different aviators dropped a dummy of Ivan Ivanovich with a parachute at different altitudes. Kotelnikov’s invention worked perfectly - it never failed, and Ivan Ivanovich did not receive any damage.

In the same year in Paris, at an international parachute competition, Lomach showed Kotelnikov’s invention in action. The French were delighted and bought both samples from him, and then set up their own production.

There is no prophet in his own country...

And in Russia they remembered about Kotelnikov’s parachutes only two years later, when the First World War began. World War. An experimental batch was made for Sikorsky aircraft, but then officials still decided to purchase parachutes abroad. Although foreign analogues were exactly the same as Kotelnikov’s, because they were made according to his samples.

Already in Soviet times Gleb Evgenievich developed the world's first cargo parachute RK-4. Its dome had a diameter of 12 meters, so it could lower up to 300 kilograms of cargo.

Overall material rating: 4.9

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All types of parachuting involve free fall and gliding (descent and landing) on ​​a parachute. The falling speed reaches 50-60+ meters per second or 180-200+ kilometers per hour. Thanks to this speed, the skydiver can move freely in the air, using his body (arms, legs, etc.) as rudders. A parachutist spends quite a short time in free fall. When jumping from 4000 thousand meters, only 60 seconds. To land safely, a skydiver needs a parachute that will slow down this speed and deliver the skydiver to the ground, to the place he needs.

It is in the mastery of body control in free fall that skydivers compete (with the exception of some types, such as classical parachuting - one of the disciplines of which is the accuracy of landing under a canopy at a given target measuring 3-5 centimeters. And dome acrobatics - building formations of domes in the air) .

Varieties of parachuting

Classic parachuting - biathlon. First exercise: Accurate landing under the canopy at a given target measuring 3-5 centimeters. The second exercise is a set of figures in free fall. They compete in the time it takes to complete this complex. Quite a conservative sport. Has not undergone any changes for many years. Requires precision of skill and consistency of results. This sport is very developed in former countries USSR and the socialist camp.

Group acrobatics - the undisputed queen of sports. They compete in the number of “constructed” figures in a certain time in teams of 4, 8 and 16 athletes. These are official competitions. But in general, you can just jump in a group with friends, build a beautiful (or not so beautiful) figure in the air (skydivers call this a “formation” - or participate in record jumps (the Guinness record in this moment constitutes a formation of 296 people [Russia, Anapa, 1996]). This is also group acrobatics. GA - the most mass appearance in parachuting.

Dome acrobatics- consists of building formations from domes. Competitions in teams of 4 and 8 athletes. Just like in GA, you can simply jump with friends or participate in record formations. Very dangerous look. But at the same time spectacular.

Freestyle- a relatively young type of parachuting. It consists of the athlete demonstrating various figures in free fall. Here the beauty, complexity of the elements, and the skill of the aerial operator who shoots in the air are assessed.

Skysurfing- compete in the same way as freestyle skiers, but the athlete jumps with a ski. The most commercial sport in skydiving.

Freefly- team event (two athletes + operator) the main elements are done upside down or sitting.

Story

Many peoples of the world have legends associated with the parachute. In China and Russia, these legends are about a thousand years old. Magellan describes the jumping of blacks using umbrellas made of palm leaves. Jumping from towers, trees, mountains on various devices was mentioned among different peoples. The legends are united by one thing: a person can fly by leaning on the air.

It is known that the principle of the parachute was first formulated by the famous 13th century humanist Roger Bacon. In his essay “On the Secret Works of Art and Nature,” Bacon recognized the possibility of building flying machines and indicated that it was possible to rely on the air using a concave surface. The great Leonardo da Vinci developed this idea. In one of his manuscripts there is a drawing of a pyramid-shaped parachute with the caption underneath: “If a person has a tent of starched linen, each side of which is twelve cubits wide and the same in height, he can throw himself from any height without exposing himself to danger.” There's no danger in that." The surface of such a device is approximately 60 sq.m. Midship area - 30 sq.m. These data are similar to a modern round parachute. At the beginning of the 17th century, the idea and design of a parachute were outlined in a book by the scientist Faust Verancio. In 1617, he made the first parachute jump, which he built himself, from a small tower.

The next person about whom it is known for certain that he made a parachute descent was a native of the city of Savoy, Frenchman Laven. In the 20s of the 17th century, Laven was imprisoned in the Moljans fortress for some crime. Deciding to escape, he secretly made himself a parachute from sheets sewn together with a whalebone attached to them, which prevented the canopy from collapsing. At night, Laven climbed a high fortress wall and jumped from it into the waters of the Iser River. The descent was completely calm, but the guards noticed the fugitive and detained him. In 1777, an extraordinary advertisement was posted throughout the streets of Paris. It read: “Professor de Fontanges invented a flying cloak. With this cloak, Jean Doumier, sentenced to death for murder, will jump from the tower. If the experiment is successful, the condemned man will be pardoned. Everyone, young and old, come to the square to watch a spectacle unprecedented in history.” This is how the newspapers of that time describe Jean Doumier's jump: “Doumier went, accompanied by police officers, to the Paris armory, where Professor de Fontanges was waiting for him. Many curious people gathered to observe the experiment. Doumier climbed onto the roof of the armory. The professor put on him a cloak consisting from countless small tires. - “Keep your arms horizontal and try to soar like a bird. “Nothing else is required from you,” said Professor de Fontanges to Jean Doumier. Doumier jumped. The wind carried him a little to the side at first. The audience looked in surprise at the man soaring in the air. Suddenly Doumier quickly flew down. Everyone screamed. However, almost reaching the ground "Dumier paused a little and regained his lost balance. He fell to the ground completely unharmed. The satisfied inventor handed Doumier a wallet with gold coins."

The further development of parachuting is connected with the development of aeronautics. June 5, 1783 is a significant date in the history of all mankind. The Montgolfier brothers' balloon filled with hot air took off for the first time. Such balls were called "hot air balloons". Soon the scientist Charles replaced the hot air with hydrogen. These balls were called "charliers". Hot air ballooning was dangerous. The creation of a parachute to save people became a conscious goal. That same year, French physicist Sebastian Lenormand made and personally tested a parachute after jumping from the observatory. Lenormand called his invention “parachute”. It is derived from two words: the Greek "para" and the French "chute", which means "against falling". In 1785, French. inventor Blanchard was the first to escape by parachute after a balloon accident. In 1797, the Frenchman Garnerin was the first in the world to jump from a height of about 700 meters from a hot air balloon using a soft parachute of his own design. His parachute is very close to the modern round parachute. Round, soft, without frame, with pole hole.

The first female paratrooper was Garnerin's niece, Elizabeth. She made about 60 jumps. During the 19th century, parachute jumping high altitudes, complicated by various tricks, were one of the most fashionable spectacles of folk festivals and festivities in different countries oh, including in Russia.

A new round in the development of parachuting began with the development of aviation. The first jump from an airplane was made in 1912 in America in the city of St. Louis by Captain Berry. The adaptation of a parachute to an aircraft for rescue purposes led to the creation of the backpack parachute. Russian actor Kotelnikov witnessed the death of pilot Matsievich. It shocked him. In 1911, Kotelnikov patented the first backpack parachute, which was independently attached to the pilot. His idea began to be widely used in the design of parachutes in different countries. In the USA, parachutes designed by Irwin were used. On October 22, 1922, in the United States, pilot Lieutenant Harris became the first person in the world to escape after the First World War by parachute, jumping out of an airplane that broke up during testing. Harris' rescue played a major role in the further development of parachuting in the United States. Pilots began to think differently about parachutes, and since 1924, a parachute has become a mandatory accessory for US military pilots. Design thought is rich in inventions. This is how the famous automatic parachute was designed in the USA passenger aircraft, bearing the expressive title “Go Down.” This parachute was designed so that, if necessary, the pilot, with one press of a lever, opens the hatch under the passenger's seat. The chair tilts, the passenger falls out of the cabin into the hole that opens along the legs and the parachute automatically opens. In those same years, a special club was organized in the United States, the members of which could only be persons who had made a forced parachute jump to save their lives. The club is named after the silkworm, which spins strong silk thread that is used to make parachute fabric. Among the club members were pilots with up to a dozen forced jumps.

The first parachute jump in the USSR was made from a balloon, on the day of the anniversary of the Red Army on February 23, 1919, by pilot A.V. Edelshtein, in the town of Akhtuba, the former Astrakhan province. In the twenties, Soviet industry began producing domestic parachutes. In June 1927, test pilot M.M. Gromov was the first Soviet pilot to use a rescue parachute during an unsuccessful test flight. His plane did not come out of a spin. This event, just like in the USA, changed the attitude of Soviet pilots to the parachute.

The pioneer of parachuting in the USSR is the pilot Leonid Grigorievich Minov, who performed his first parachute jump in 1929 in the USA, and then, together with J. Moshkovsky, organized the training of instructors and parachutist athletes in the country. It is generally accepted that the date of the birth of parachuting in the USSR is June 26, 1930, when the first jumps of military pilots in the USSR under the leadership of L.G. Minov began in Voronezh.

In the thirties, there was a rapid development of parachuting in the leading aviation countries of the world. Rescue parachutes for pilots, parachutes for landing people and dropping cargo in any conditions are being improved. Methods for calculating a jump for throwing and landing people and cargo in a strictly defined area are being developed and improved. A technique is being developed to control various types of parachutes to avoid obstacles and land at a planned location. Very quickly a person masters increasingly longer delays in opening the parachute and high-altitude jumps with immediate opening of the parachute. Over the decade, from 1930 to 1940, heights from 80 to 12,000 meters were mastered in parachute jumping. World record holders fell in free fall for more than 10 kilometers. Records changed with kaleidoscopic speed. Jumps were mastered in winter and summer, day and night, on forests, on limited areas, on water, long and high altitude, with oxygen equipment, with weapons, single and in mass landings of several thousand people. Parachutes were used to eject doctors, firefighters, rescuers, and demolitionists. For delivery of goods. products, medicines, fuel, etc. In 1939, the first ever jump to the North Pole. Record breakers who jumped from great heights showed real courage. At that time, people did not yet know how to control movement in free fall. Therefore, they fell randomly or struggled with a corkscrew - an energetic progressive rotation in different planes. This led to large, dangerous overloads and made it difficult to control altitude and time. The Second World War redirected all peaceful knowledge in parachuting to solve military problems.

In the post-war period, the main directions for the development of parachuting were determined in the leading aviation countries of the world. There is an active improvement in the designs of all types of parachutes, methods of their use and methods of training people, and a search for new areas of application of parachutes. Parachutists learned to control an open parachute in any weather conditions, individually and as part of a group and control movement in free fall, also individually and as part of a group. To assess the skill of parachutists, sports exercises were formed - landing accuracy and delay in opening the parachute with performing elements in free fall - rotations in the horizontal plane (spirals) and rotations in the vertical plane (somersaults). For more than 20 years, these exercises have been the basis of international and national competitions. Subsequently, this combination was called “classical parachuting.” This is the only type of parachuting where the highest personal sports title“Absolute world champion in parachuting”, because the athletes demonstrate the finest ability to control an open parachute, hitting an electronic target with a diameter of three centimeters 10 times in a row in any weather conditions in a very intense psychological struggle and the ability to very quickly and accurately perform the same all complex of figures - "sprint" in free fall. World champions, leaning on the air, perform six rotations in different directions in less than 5 seconds.

The most outstanding athletes in classical parachuting are Nikolai Ushmaev - USSR, Cheryl Stearns - USA and Josef Pavlata - Czechoslovakia, who twice won the title of Absolute World Champion. As paratroopers they are versatile.

History of parachute development

Born to crawl, cannot fly!!! More and more people are refuting this famous phrase. Man has conquered the sky, space, and the more he discovers and learns, the more difficult it is to avoid catastrophes. But in parallel with the discovery of flying machines, man invents life-saving...

Fall prevention idea The idea of ​​a parachute, a device for safe descent from high altitude, appeared long before the flight of the first hot air balloon, not to mention the airplane. However, the name “parachute” came into technology much later than the birth of the idea.

From ancient traditions, legends, and stories of medieval travelers, we know about the use of devices resembling umbrellas for jumping from towers and cliffs. Residents of China, Africa and South-East Asia Even in ancient times, they were well aware of the braking properties of concave surfaces. Umbrella jumping demonstrations were held at festivals and circus performances.

This is how one Spanish traveler described such jumps, which he saw in one of the Negro tribes: “They spread animal skins on the ground for us, and at the invitation of the leader, we sat down. The leader sat down next to us, pointing with a gesture to the hill and quickly explaining something. Here we saw how several people appeared on this hill with large umbrellas made of palm branches... And so, at a sign from the leader, a black man standing next to him beat a large long drum, and each time at this signal, one after another, people jumped from the cliff, holding umbrellas in their hands, and were lowered onto the green lawn with noisy approval from the leader and his retinue."

Descriptions of successful jumps from great heights can be found in the works of the ancient Roman writers Apuleius and Ovid. However, it was only at the end of the 15th century that the first technical design for a parachute appeared. It was proposed by the great Italian scientist engineer and artist Leonardo da Vince. This invention was the result of numerous experiments and observations of the scientist on the behavior of falling cardboard figures of various shapes.

In the collection of Leonardo da Vinci's manuscripts, the Atlantic Codex, among other designs, there is a sketch of a parachute with a dome in the shape of a tetrahedral pyramid. The scientist wrote: “If a person has a tent of starched linen, 12 cubits wide and 12 cubits high, he will be able to throw himself from any height without danger to himself.” Considering that the length of the elbow is approximately 0.6 m, the area of ​​the parachute dome at the base is more than 50 square meters, i.e. was indeed sufficient for a safe descent. Did da Vinci conduct any experiments with his parachute or was he limited to just a sketch and brief description him, unknown.

The next project for a fully functional parachute appeared around 1617, when the book “New Machines...” by Bishop Faustus Veranzio was published in Venice. Among various technical innovations and remarkable structures, the book contains a description and drawing of a parachute with a square dome.

The edges of the dome (“sails”, in the terminology of the author of the book) were attached to four identical sticks, and four ropes were tied to the corners, serving as slings. The artist depicted a parachute as a man descended from a high tower.

There was no practical need for a parachute in the time of Veranzio and especially Leonardo da Vinci.

The French chemist and mechanic Louis Sebastian Lenormand began working in a completely different environment, proposing his parachute design in 1783. That year, the first aeronauts took to the sky in a hot air balloon filled with warm air. The threat of air disasters (and they soon followed) became real.

Veranzio Lenormand apparently did not know about the parachute projects of Leonardo da Vinci and Faust. His parachute was cone-shaped, sewn from linen and covered with paper on the inside to reduce air permeability. Several dozen thin slings converged on a seat woven from willow twigs.

Lenormand also introduced the term “parachute” (from the French words parer - prevent and chute - fall), which had not been used before.

None of the aeronauts ever took advantage of Lenormand's invention, although successful experiments with animals (the inventor dropped them on his parachute from the balcony of the Montpellier Observatory from a height of 26 meters) proved its reliability.

The first of the “people of the air” to pay attention to the parachute was the famous French aeronaut Jean Pierre Blanchard. In 1784, he added a parachute to the balloon, the canopy of which had spokes and hung completely open under the balloon.

On this balloon, Blanchard made a remarkable flight, reaching a height of 4000 meters and staying in the air for more than an hour, but he did not descend with his rigid parachute and soon abandoned it.

Nevertheless, Blanchard's idea turned out to be very fruitful. The parachute became a fairly convenient and reliable means of rescue when the spokes were removed from it, which were completely unnecessary and only made the structure heavier and more complicated.

This important step was taken by Blanchard's compatriot, the aeronaut Andre Jacques Gornerin, who became famous for his daring flights. He also hung the soft canopy of the parachute, sewn from silk fabric - taffeta, below, under the ball.

The basket in which the balloonist was located was attached to the parachute lines. A light wooden hoop hung on the four central lines, which prevented the edge of the canopy from closing and facilitated the process of opening the parachute.

In order to separate the parachute, it was necessary to cut the rope connecting the parachute canopy to the balloon balloon.

The risky experiment was carried out by Garnerin himself on October 22, 1797 in Paris in front of numerous spectators. “It looked so terrifying, especially the ever-accelerating fall,” said eyewitness Academician J. Lalande, “that a cry of horror rang through the crowd.” But the parachute quickly opened and the brave balloonist, waving the national flag, began to slowly approach the ground.

This was the first balloon jump with a parachute. Garnerin later made many jumps. To reduce swaying during descent, he made a pole hole in the center of the parachute canopy and proved its usefulness in practice. The Garnerin parachute has been used for many decades by balloonists from different countries almost unchanged.

In the summer of 1803, residents of St. Petersburg learned about the arrival of the famous Garnerin in the capital. Its first flight on June 20 was a great success. A month later, Garneren undertook a second air trip to St. Petersburg (together with General S.L. Lvov). Then he went to Moscow and there he once again ascended in a hot air balloon.

Garnerin himself did not jump with a parachute in Russia. This was done by his student aeronaut Alexander. On September 26, 1804, he made such a jump in St. Petersburg. Alexander also jumped in Moscow, rising into the air from the Neskuchny Garden.

After Alexander, the Frenchman Michaud made jumps in St. Petersburg and Moscow in 1805-1806. At the same time, he used the so-called double (two-dome) parachute of his teacher E.G. Robertson. The jumps were a success.

Parachuting developed as a spectacle, as a kind of open-air church performance.

At the same time, the foundations of the parachute theory were gradually laid, and inventors were looking for ways to improve it.

In the spring of 1882, at one of the meetings of the 7th Aeronautical Department of the Russian Technical Society, Lieutenant M. Karmanov reported on the “controlled parachute” he had invented.

In the early 90s, the talented scientist A.Kh. studied the stability of the parachute. Repman. His parachute did not have a pole hole, but was equipped with an additional surface - fields bent upward around the dome, which made the parachute's descent more stable.

In those same years, a parachute of an original design was proposed by the Russian engineer N.F. Yagn. He also abandoned the pole hole in the parachute, and divided the space under the dome into four sectors with vertical fabric partitions. These partitions served as a kind of brake and quickly damped the vibrations of the parachute.

In the 80s of the last century, a new method of attaching a parachute to a balloon began to be used.

The dome of the oars is not at the bottom, but at the side, at the level of the equator of the balloon, attached to the net using a simple spring clip. The parachute lines went to a wooden ring.

A primitive “suspension system” was also attached to the same ring - a rope loop that the aeronaut, sitting on a trapeze, threaded under his arms.

Having risen to a sufficient height with the help of a balloon, the parachutist jumped off the trapeze and tore off the parachute with the force of his weight. After a second or two, the parachute canopy filled with air, and a slow descent began.

Gleb Evgenievich Kotelnikov made a huge contribution to the development of the parachute. He went down in technical history as the inventor of the world's first aviation backpack parachute.

The Age of Aviation Aviation was breaking new altitude records. However, these results were achieved at a high price: next to reports of record flights, news of tragic deaths aviators. The number of aviation accidents grew along with the advances in aviation.

Although aviation circles treated the parachute with great distrust, enthusiastic designers worked. Kotelnikov had predecessors who also dreamed of giving aviators a means of salvation.

The canopy of their parachute was supposed to serve as a cape for the aviator, and the lines were to be attached to the pilot’s belt using special hooks. The inventors hoped that under the pressure of the air flow the cape would quickly turn into an open parachute.

Parisian tailor F. Reichelt designed a parachute in the form of a suit and received a patent for it in July 1910. The canopy was laid in numerous folds around the aviator’s body. In February 1912, the inventor jumped from the Eiffel Tower, the parachute did not open and Reichelt died.

Since 1909, G. Vasseur worked on the creation of an aviation parachute in France. His parachute was a large umbrella with spokes. Wasser wanted to place it on the fuselage of the aircraft, behind the pilot. In the event of an accident, the parachute should have been released, and the air-filled umbrella should, in theory, have pulled the pilot out of the airplane.

But an even more curious parachute design was proposed by the American A.K. Ulmer in 1910. The originality of the parachute design was that its canopy, made of light fabric, fit into the aviator's headgear - a cap.

It was assumed that, if necessary, the pilot would drop his cap, the air flow would “etch the canopy,” and then quickly fill it. However, this parachute was not used in practice.

Kotelnikov independently searched for the principles of constructing an aviation parachute. He also came to the firm conviction that the parachute should be an integral part of the pilot’s equipment and should be with him at all times.

At the same time, it should not embarrass the aviator or interfere with his control of the aircraft. For the dome, he used light but durable silk. I divided the slings into two bundles and attached each of them to its own strap. Kotelnikov made the suspension system from durable belts: a waist belt, a chest-back belt and two shoulder belts.

This type of suspension system had not been used by anyone before that time. He attached the straps to the harness using carabiners, i.e. made the canopy clip-on.

This made it possible for the survivor to quickly free himself from the canopy when launching or in strong winds. But the dome, with a diameter of about seven meters, could not fit into the helmet. Then the inventor came up with the idea of ​​putting the canopy in a backpack. Kotelnikov also developed a “manual type” of parachute deployment, which was no less important.

Recent decades last years the parachute has changed a lot. In 1936, the Doronin brothers invented the world's first device for automatically deploying a parachute. This device made a real revolution in parachute business.

With these devices, paratroopers could jump from any height in the most difficult weather conditions. Like the parachute, the Doronins’ device has undergone many changes. Currently, electronic devices are used to facilitate the tasks of parachutists and insure their lives.

Parachutes have become extremely popular. There are several types of parachutes: stabilizing, braking, cargo, rescue, military, sports, etc.

Round and oval domes have gradually replaced the new generation of domes from sports. These are wing-type canopies, first introduced in the 70s, they have good maneuverability and stability.

Modern parachutes develop horizontal speeds of up to 20-27 m/s with a weight of only a few kg and an area of ​​up to 16 square meters. These canopies do not have stabilizing parachutes and are designed for more experienced athletes.

But in any case, you have to start somewhere. Therefore, in our parachute clubs you can still find round D-5, D-1-5u, semi-oval and heavily rugged T-4 and UT-15.

Parachute technology is developing in the direction of reducing the weight and volume of the parachute and increasing maneuverability, speed and reliability.

Russia is trying to keep up with other countries. But more and more often we come across domestic parachutes that are simply “redrawn” from Western analogues, with only one difference: the canopy fabric is much worse, the seams “crawl” after several openings, etc. A striking example of such a parachute is the Radar.

Leonardo da Vinci, the most versatile genius of the Renaissance, is best remembered as the creator of the paintings "Portrait of Madame Lisa del Giocondo" and "The Last Supper." But he is almost equally famous for his versatility, as he was interested in architecture, sculpture, music, mechanical engineering, geology, hydraulics and military art, and only in free time allowed himself to indulge in creating sketches for the design of parachutes and aircraft (helicopters). He also depicted the human body on paper, studying its anatomy, drawings of which are still valued today.

Da Vinci's parachute sketch

This article will talk about the history of the invention of the parachute, and the “universal man” Leonardo da Vinci was mentioned above for a reason.

The very first parachute: who invented it

"Gray" assumptions

Many believe that the earliest designs for parachutes were found in Chinese chronicles 20 centuries ago. There is also information that in the 9th century, Abbas ibn Firnas and Ali Ben Isa were the creators of the first versions of the parachute, which John H. Lienhard later described as “a huge falling winged cloak.”

The cone parachute (a cone-shaped parachute canopy) first appeared in Italian manuscripts in 1470, slightly predating the parachutes of similar design by Leonardo da Vinci, as was believed. It was supposed to serve as an evacuation device that would allow people to jump out of buildings in the event of a fire. But there is not a single piece of evidence that they were used for their intended purpose.

Is Leonardo the "father"?

Scientists of our time believe that the world's first parachute (conical) was sketched and presented by Leonardo da Vinci in the 15th century. Its design consisted of a sealed (resin-impregnated) linen fabric holding the opening skeleton of a wooden pyramid about 7 meters long. The original drawing was created by the artist in 1483 in his notebook with the statement "If a man is provided with a piece of sealed linen cloth 11 meters long on each of the four sides and 11 meters high, he will be able to jump from a great height to the ground without being injured."

Model of Leonardo's parachute based on the 1483 sketches depicted in the margins of his notebook. The original drawing is kept in the Ambrosian Library in Milan.

On Tuesday 27 June 2000, Dr Damian Carrington (of BBC News Online) reported that Leonardo Vinci was indeed the one who first sketched and modeled a parachute over 500 years ago.

Creators of a working parachute

Croatia

There are suggestions that the inventor of the first (working) parachute is Faust Vrancic from Croatia (1595). Twenty years later he tried out his creation by flying from a tower in Venice, claiming to be the first to jump with a parachute.

France

In France, aeronaut Jean-Pierre Blanchard also claimed to be the first to create a parachute in 1785. And Jacques Garnerin, 12 years later, made a successful jump from a hot air balloon, which was flying at an altitude of 920 m. It is believed that this was the first parachute jump in history.

Backpack equipment

In 1887, Captain Thomas Baldwin invented the backpack harness, and in 1890, Pavel Letterman and Katchen Palus created a buckle-adjustable parachute that folded into the backpack and deployed in the air. This was the first backpack parachute.

The first person to work on improving parachutes on the territory of the USSR in the post-revolutionary years was Evgenievich Kotelnikov, who received a patent for a parachute backpack. His designs were the first to be used in aviation. But the resolution of Prince Alexander Mikhailovich stated that parachutes were useless for aviators, since, provided with a soft backpack, they, jumping out of the plane, did not save the car, and “cars are more expensive than people.”

In 1891, a whole family of paratroopers appeared in Russia, one of whom, Jozef Drevnitsky, before the First World War, in 1910, made a jump in St. Petersburg.

The translation of the word “parachute” familiar to our ears means: the Greek word “against” and the French “fall”, para + chute = parachute.

Back in the 13th century, the famous Roger Bacon wrote in his essay about the possibility of leaning on the air using a concave surface.

In 1485, the famous Italian artist and inventor Leonardo da Vinci created a sketch of a simple parachute. Leonardo writes: “If a person takes a stretched linen dome, each side of which is twelve cubits wide and twelve cubits high, then he can safely throw himself from any height...

A person will move to the right if he bends right hand and straightens the left one; and will then move from right to left as the position of the hands changes.” However, he himself did not dare to test his invention. The project remained unrealized.

In 1595, Venetian engineer Fausto Veranzio was the first to publish a design for his parachute. On the pages of the book "New Machines" he depicted a piece of square canvas stretched over a frame, to the corners of which ropes were tied, which in turn were attached to the parachutist. In 1617, Fausto Veranzio made a jump from a fairly high height.

The Croatian scientist (and at the same time a priest) Fauste Vrancice gained fame for the invention of the parachute. In 1597, Bishop F. Vrancic, in front of a large crowd of people in Bratislava, made a jump from the 87-meter bell tower to the market square under the dome of a parachute - a six-meter square piece of fabric stretched over a wooden frame. This jump was officially recorded in documents where F. Vrancice was called “the flying man.” He later made such jumps more than once.

One of the Montgolfier brothers tested the parachute he had invented in 1777, 6 years before the flight of his first balloon. He designed a jumping apparatus and tested it himself by jumping from the roof of a high barn.

Later, however, in the first test of a parachute, carried out by the Montgolfier brothers from aboard a hot air balloon, a sheep took the place of a man and did not receive any injuries as a result of the experiment.

In 1777, the Parisian professor Desfontages invented a “flying cloak” - something like a parachute - and asked the authorities to provide him with a criminal sentenced to death for testing. The robber who jumped with the “flying cape” remained alive!

French physicist Louis Sebastien Lenormont made a parachute in the form of a cone-shaped dome. The Lenormand parachute was made of linen and covered with paper on the inside to reduce air permeability. Several dozen thin slings converged on a seat woven from willow twigs. Lenormont made his first jump in December 1783 from the balcony of the observatory in Montpellier.

In 1785, during a balloon flight from a height of 300 meters, the parachute of the Frenchman Jean-Pierre Blanchard was tested, who made the first opening parachute from silk. Before this, all parachutes had a rigid frame. He wanted to minimize the risk to the life of the parachute tester, so the dog became the first tester. The animal landed safely! In 1793, Blanchard himself dared to make the jump.

In 1797, a parachute was tested in Paris. In front of a crowd of thousands, the Garneren brothers rose to a height of 1 km in a hot air balloon. The older brother Andre-Jacques had to jump with a parachute - an eight-meter “umbrella” ending in a small basket. The parachute floated chaotically, because... it was impossible to control it. The jump ended with a sprained leg. Two years after his first jump, Garneren lifted into the air a balloon with his wife in the gondola, preparing for a parachute jump. The landing was successful, and Madame Jeanne-Geneviève Garnerin became the first parachutist in the world. After some time, their daughter Elisa Garneren also made a parachute jump. The Garneren brothers traveled around Europe with demonstration jumps. In 1802 in London, Andre-Jacques set a world record by jumping from a height of 2.5 km. In 1803, in St. Petersburg, Russia, where the brothers came to fly, Garnerin’s balloon rose from Vasilievsky Island, flew over the city and landed in the forest on Malaya Okhta. Andre-Jacques Garnerin died while testing another parachute model.

In 1885, the Frenchman Charles Leroux came to Russia with the circus trick “King of the Air”, who demonstrated jumps from a height of 500 meters. Leroux's parachute looked like a large umbrella consisting of 12 wedges. Each of the wedges was fastened with slings to a belt worn by the parachutist. The parachute was attached to the side of the balloon on a rope with a spring. As soon as the person jumped, the spring was released and the parachute was separated from the balloon. Charles Leroux died in a parachute jump.

American Erwin Baldwin parachuted from a balloon in 1880. His parachute opened automatically. A cord was tied to the upper knot of the sling, the other end of which was attached to the balloon basket. When the parachutist separated from the balloon, the cord broke under his weight, the frameless fabric dome stretched out from the fall, filled with air and opened. This principle of automatic parachute deployment has been preserved to this day.

Charles Broadwick invents a parachute pack in 1901. Before this, all parachutes were hung outstretched on a balloon.

Leo Stevens invents the pull ring in 1908.

Parisian tailor F. Reichelt designed a parachute in the form of a suit and received a patent for it in July 1910. The canopy was laid in numerous folds around the aviator’s body and had a total braking area of ​​about ten square meters. . In February 1912, the inventor jumped from the Eiffel Tower, the parachute did not open, and Reichelt died.

Since 1909, G. Vasseur worked on the creation of an aviation parachute in France. His parachute was a large umbrella with spokes. Wasser wanted to place it on the fuselage of the aircraft, behind the pilot. In the event of an accident, the parachute should have been released, and the air-filled umbrella should, in theory, have pulled the pilot out of the airplane.

But an even more interesting parachute design was proposed by the American A. K. Ulmer in 1910. Its dome, made of light fabric, fit into the aviator's headdress - a cap - a cap. If necessary, the pilot would drop his cap, the air flow would “etch the canopy” and then quickly fill it. However, this parachute was not used in practice.

Tests revealed the main disadvantages of a parachute with a frame, or a rigid parachute: the canopy was bulky, the parachutist was twisted violently in the air. To eliminate these phenomena, the inventors tied sails and bamboo struts to the canopy of the parachute, attached special valves and attached wings. But then it turned out that it would be more expedient to make a hole in the middle of the dome, and abandon the frame and bulky spacers. Their role is regularly played by the oncoming air flow. The design of the parachute has become much more reliable. The parachute canopy was first attached to the balloon in a half-opened form. But such a parachute was not suitable for jumping from an airplane. The Russian inventor G.E. found a solution. Kotelnikov.

In 1911, a graduate of the Kyiv Military School, but an actor by profession, G. E. Kotelnikov, struck by the death of the Russian aviator L. Matsievich as a result of a plane crash, wrote: “The long and mournful synod of glorious victims prompted me to invent a very simple and useful device for preventing death in the event of an accident." Kotelnikov invented a backpack parachute, the concept of which has remained unchanged to this day.

The parachute had round shape and was placed in a metal backpack. At the bottom of the backpack, under the dome, there were springs that ejected the dome when the jumper pulled out the release ring. Subsequently, the hard backpack was replaced by a soft one, and honeycombs appeared at its bottom for laying slings in them.

The parachute model was successfully tested on a doll several times, but was forgotten... In 1912, Kotelnikov managed to obtain a patent for his invention in France. It was only with the outbreak of the First World War that the parachute was remembered. Kotelnikov offered his parachute to the military department. But he was refused, because there was an opinion that parachutes in aviation were harmful: at the slightest danger, pilots would escape by parachute, leaving the planes to die. Later, already under Soviet power, G.E. Kotelnikov improved his parachute.

The first jump from an airplane was made in 1912 in America in the city of St. Louis by Captain Berry.

In 1919, in the USA, engineer Irwin proposed a backpack parachute that worked on the same principles as Kotelnikov’s. In the USA, things went faster and since 1924, all US military pilots began to fly with parachutes on an order. And since 1924, a parachute has become a mandatory accessory for US military pilots.

In 1936, the Doronin brothers invented the world's first device for automatically deploying a parachute. With these devices, paratroopers could jump from any height in the most difficult weather conditions.

Parachutes have become extremely popular. Over time, they were designed different kinds parachutes: stabilizing, braking, cargo, rescue, military, sports. Over the decade, from the 30th to the 40th century in the 20th century, heights from 80 to 12,000 meters were mastered in parachute jumping. World record holders jumped from a height of more than 10 km.

In 1949, the first parachute jump to the North Pole was made by V. Volovich and A. Medvedev.

2005 - D. Ovodenko and I. Kalinin are the first in the world to jump to the North. Pole with a parachute on a monoski from an altitude of 3000 meters. The world championship was recorded in the Guinness Book of Records.

In 1951, the first world parachuting championship was held in Yugoslavia.

Is it possible to jump with a parachute from the stratosphere? -

In the 70s of the 20th century, round and oval domes gradually replaced the new generation of domes from sports. These are wing-type domes, they have good maneuverability and stability.

A parachute, the main purpose of which is to lower an object from a height with braking due to atmospheric resistance, is currently used, for example, to reduce mileage when landing high-speed aircraft and braking racing cars.

During an accident on modern submarines, personnel use two rescue equipment from different branches of the military to individually ascend from depths of about one hundred meters. This is a breathing apparatus and a parachute that slows down during ascent.

An individual device was invented for lifting a skier up mountain slopes. It fits easily in a backpack. This is a parachute! So, to climb the mountain you only need skis, wind and a parachute!

INTERESTING!

It is known that from swamp bog It’s almost impossible to get out on your own. Once upon a time during the Second World War German officer G. Graf, having rammed an American fighter, ended up in a swamp. This is how he recalled it: “It became impossible to breathe, I was suffocating, but suddenly some monstrous force tore me out of the embrace of death and dragged me with great speed along the surface of the earth. Losing consciousness, I see in front of me a huge... inflated dome of my parachute.” It turns out that the Count landed by parachute in a swamp, and thanks to the wind that day strong wind the parachute pulled him out of the quagmire.

Dark humor: After the jumper pulls the ring, he must determine whether the main canopy has opened. Instructors say about this: “If you don’t understand what’s happening, you don’t see whether the dome has opened or not, all you have to do is spit on the ground... and by the movement of the saliva, determine whether the dome has opened. Because if the saliva flies down, everything is fine, and if up, you need to open the reserve parachute.

1 sq. m of modern parachute fabric weighs only about 32 g!