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Although technological improvements to the parachute have evolved for almost half a century, fear still exists in the eyes of any person who dares to use one. One can only imagine the fear in the mind of the first person to ever attempt to use the parachute. The first inspiration for the parachute seems to have started over 2,800 years ago in Assyria. The parasol, used by the Assyrians, seems to be the first link to the parachute (The Big Umbrella 2). It took almost two and a half millenniums for a great mind to come along and actually start the first design of the parachute. This great mind, Leonardo Da Vinci, is the first known person to actually put the idea of the parachute into writing (Sellick 1). Now, over five hundred years later, the evolution of the parachute canopy has formed a place in history.
The origin and first design of the parachute is credited to Da Vinci, with his sketch in 1485 of a pyramid-shaped structure with a man dangling below it. With Da Vinci’s intent on saving lives from burning buildings, he began the preliminary design of a rigid wooden structure with woven linen stretched over the frame. Translated from his actual sketch, he wrote, “If a man has a tent roof of caulked linen twelve braccia broad and twelve braccia high, he will be able to let himself fall from any great height without danger to himself” (qtd. ... Although Da Vinci is credited with the first design of a parachute, the actual building and implementation of the device did not occur until a century later. In 1595, Fausto Veranzio constructed the first parachute using the rigid frame concept. Veranzio did not use Da Vinci’s pyramid shape but, instead, a square canvas parachute (Sellick 2).
Approximate Word count = 1501
Approximate Pages = 6
(250 words per page double spaced)
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