The idea of a parachute, a device for safely descending from a great height, appeared long before the flight of the first balloon, let alone an airplane. However, the name "parachute" came into technology much later than the birth of the idea.
From ancient traditions, legends, stories of medieval travelers, it is known about the use of devices resembling umbrellas for jumping from towers and cliffs.
The history of the creation of the parachute
In the 13th century, Roger Bacon, an English philosopher and tester, wrote in his works about the possibility of relying on air when using a concave surface. But the very idea of creating a parachute came from Leonardo da Vinci, in his works - 1495, it is mentioned about the possibility of a safe descent from a height.
Leonardo da Vinci was the first to point out the most advantageous size of the parachute, and balloonists remembered this. At the beginning of the seventeenth century, the Croatian scientist Faust Vrancic (also known by the Italian name Fausto Veranzio) described a similar apparatus, the size of the sail of which depended on the gravity of a person. the design of the Frenchman Laven. This was in the 1920s. XVII century. The French prisoner escaped from prison with the help of a tent that was previously sewn from sheets, to the bottom of which he attached ropes and whalebone plates. Jumping out of the prison window, the fugitive splashed down successfully. In 1777, another Frenchman, Jean Dumier, who was sentenced to death, tried out Professor Fontage's "flying cloak." The prisoner was asked to jump from the roof with a "cloak". In the event of a successful landing, he was given life. The experiment, as in the previous case, was a success. This is how the first analogue of the parachute appeared. The practical use of parachutes began in the 18th century, with the development of flying in hot air balloons. On December 26, 1783, Louis Lenormand performed a jump from the roof of the Montpellier observatory on a device designed by him. Jean Pierre Blanchard, distressed by the tragic death of Pilatre de Rozier, began to conduct experiments with a parachute … At first, he suspended small parachutes below under the basket and lowered various animals - dogs, cats - for the amusement of the public. They sank to the ground in full health and integrity. This means that if you make a parachute of suitable size, then a person will be able to safely descend from a height in the event of a balloon accident. But what to do with a huge parachute - a canopy, slings, belts, or, as they say now, a harness, if the balloon's cabin is small, cramped and there is often nowhere to turn in it.
First parachute jump
On October 22, 1797, the first real parachute jump took place over the Parc Monceau in Paris. The Frenchman André-Jacques Garnerin jumped from a hot air balloon at an altitude of 2,230 feet.
Parachute jumps now make an irresistible impression on the audience, and even more so in those days. There were many roving parachutists-aeronauts who, in search of earnings, showed skydiving in different countries. By the way, André-Jacques Garnerin was one of the first balloonists to demonstrate hot air ballooning in 1803 in Russia. There were many enthusiastic parachutists in Russia itself. The newspaper "Moskovskie vedomosti" for 1806 reports that the Russian aeronaut Aleksandrovsky took off in a large balloon and made a parachute jump. The daredevil safely descended to the ground and was enthusiastically greeted by the audience. The parachutes of that time had a major drawback - the constant rocking of the canopy during descent. The British finally managed to resolve the problem. In 1834, Cocking created an inverted cone parachute. Unfortunately, in the same year, when testing this system, the frame of the dome could not withstand the load and collapsed, and Cocking died. Another scientist, Lalande, proposed making a hole in traditional parachute systems for air to escape from under the canopy. This principle proved to be effective and is still used in many parachute systems.
Types of parachutes for dropping people
For the safe landing of people, the following types of parachutes are used:
- training;
- rescue;
- special purposes;
- landing;
- gliding shell parachute systems (sports).
The main types are gliding shell parachute systems ("wing") and landing (round) parachutes
Amphibious
Army parachutes are of 2 types: round and square.
The canopy of a round landing parachute is a polygon, which, when filled with air, takes the shape of a hemisphere. The dome has a cutout (or less dense fabric) in the center. Round landing parachute systems (for example, D-5, D-6, D-10) have the following altitude characteristics:
- maximum discharge height - 8 km.
- the usual working height is 800-1200 m.
- the minimum drop height is 200 m with a stabilization of 3 s and a descent on a filled canopy for at least 10 s.
Round landing parachutes are poorly controlled. They have approximately the same vertical and horizontal speed (5 m / s). Weight:
- 13.8 kg (D-5);
- 11.5 kg (D-6);
- 11, 7 (D-10).
Square parachutes (Russian "Leaf" D-12, American T-11) have additional slots in the canopy, which gives them better maneuverability and allows the parachutist to control horizontal movement. The rate of descent is up to 4 m / s. Horizontal speed - up to 5 m / s.
Training
Training parachutes are used as intermediate parachutes for the transition from landing to sport parachutes. They, like the landing, have round domes, but are equipped with additional slots and valves that allow the parachutist to influence the horizontal movement and train landing accuracy.
Sports
Gliding shell parachute systems are characterized by the greatest species diversity. They can be classified by wing shape and canopy type.
Classification by wing shape
Wing-type domes can have the following shapes:
- rectangular;
- semi-elliptical;
- elliptical.
Most of the wings are rectangular in shape. It provides ease of control and predictability of the parachute's behavior.
Sports modifications are subdivided according to the purpose of the dome into:
- classic;
- student;
- high-speed;
- transitional;
- tandem.
Rescue
Systems designed for emergency landing from a crashed aircraft are called rescue systems. As a rule, they have a round dome shape (C-4, C-5). But there are also square ones (С-3-3).
An emergency drop can occur at speeds up to 1100 km / h (S-5K) at an altitude:
- from 100 m to 12000 m (С-3-3);
- from 70 to 4000 m (S-4U);
- from 60 to 6000 m (С-4);
- from 80 to 12000 m (С-5).
When dropped at a very high altitude, the parachute is allowed to open after passing the mark of 9000 m. The area of the domes for rescue models is significant and, for example, for C-3-3 is 56.5 m instruments.
Spare
Whatever parachute systems are used, the reserve parachute is an obligatory part of them. It is attached to the skydiver's chest and is used as an emergency in cases where the main one has failed or was unable to deploy correctly. The reserve parachute is designated by the letters "З" or "ПЗ". The reserve parachute has a large canopy area - up to 50 m². The dome is round. The vertical descent speed is from 5 to 8.5 m / s.
Different types of emergency systems are compatible with different types of main parachutes:
- the reserve parachute of the Z-2 type is compatible with the landing and rescue models D-5, D-1-5, S-3-3, S-4.
- a reserve parachute of the PZ-81 type must be used with the sporting variants of the PO-9 type.
- reserve parachute PZ-74 is intended for use with training models UT-15 and T-4.
How many lines does a paratrooper's parachute have?
There are several types of parachutes, all of them with a different number of lines. There are main and additional slings, all of them are made of high-quality durable fiber, withstand a load (each) of up to two hundred kilograms.
Army parachute D-5
The parachute has 28 lines, each of them is 9 meters long. It has the shape of a dome. The only and serious disadvantage is that there is no way to control it, for this reason you can land wherever you are lucky.
Parachute D-6
The parachute has 30 lines. 28 ordinary and two are intended for dome control. They are located in the side cuts of the parachute. By pulling on these lines, you can turn and deploy the canopy in the desired direction. This is a very useful quality if the landing does not take place at a training ground, but in mountainous conditions, forests or in a place where there are water bodies.
D-10 series parachute
This parachute can be easily controlled even by a novice parachutist. Ease of control depends on how many lines there are in the landing parachute: the more there are, the easier it is to control.
D-10 has twenty-six main lines: twenty-two four-meter lines and two seven-meter lines, attached to the loops in the slots of the dome. There are also twenty-two additional lines located on the outside, their length is three meters.
There are also twenty-four additional inner lines. They are attached to additional slings. Two additional ones are attached to the second and fourteenth at once.
The D-10 is considered one of the safest parachutes in history.
Interesting facts about parachutes
- The record for the jump from the highest height also belongs to the American. On August 16, 1960, Joseph Kittinger jumped from a height of 33130 meters, climbing to such a height on a stratospheric balloon.
- The oldest parachutist was 92 years old.
- The funniest skydivers are the Japanese. They came up with the Banzai jump. The trick is that, first, a parachute is thrown out of the plane, followed by a person who must have time to catch up, put on and release the parachute before he reaches the ground.
- The death rate in parachuting is low - 1 case per 80 thousand jumps.
