Parachutes By: Sebastian Polanco 6B

Introduction The parachute has been around for a long time. It did start as just a drawing in Italy by an unknown person at some point in the 1470’s. It advanced throughout the years and actually became a physical thing. Then people started to make it a sport and started to use it more and more and became an attraction. It became more important and known and even played quite a big part in World War 1 and 2. It now has many more ways to use it and so it is still important for survival.

Explaining the problem The problem only became a problem when people took to the skies because when people got on air balloons they knew there was a risk that it would fail and so the would fall to their death. So people needed to create something for an emergency, something that was light and portable. They started to design things and came up with the parachute design. They saw that it would create drag and slow down peoples descending speed which might not get them fully out of danger because it was no too advanced and tested so people could brake legs or just get small injuries but that is still better than falling to your death.

Inventor The first drawing was by an unknown person in Italy in the 1470’s. That was the first drawing of the concept of a parachute. The drawing showed the parachute as an upside cone with bars stuck under as handles and there were also some ropes which held a man as he hangs onto the poles. But then Leonardo da Vinci made another design which was a canopy held open by a wooden frame. This design of Leonardo da Vinci was actually tested in 2000 Adrian Nicholas and again in 2008 by another sky diver.

Story about parachutes It started long ago, about 200 years ago. There was a hot air balloon pilot, his name was unknown, but what is known is that he was in France. He was preparing for an solo expedition. He had to fly from Paris to Monaco. When his flight started there was a huge crowd watching him. As he flew away he though if he would ever make it back. He took a really big coat with him because he knew he was going to fly quite high and it would be cold. About half way through his flight he was asleep. But he suddenly woke up and realized he was flying lower than he was supposed to. Fired the huge blaze to full power as he struggled to gain altitude. He did make it back to the height he needed but then he realize that he had lost almost all his fuel and there was almost nothing left though he wasn’t worried because he would descend slowly and land safely. But then all of the sudden he felt an awful feeling as if he had hit something. And he was right, a bird had hit his balloon as it flew really fast. It broke in one end, and came out the other tearing the balloon apart. He started falling quickly and the the balloon set on fire with the tiny little bit of fuel there was. He had to jump out of the basket. He still had his coat on and as he fell, he suddenly felt as if he had been pulled back really hard. Then he saw that he was floating and became confused, thought then he realized his coat was stopping him. He was able to land safely back on the ground and so he told everyone this story and someone made a stopping device which we now know of as the parachute.

How parachutes work What makes a parachute work is its shape. The parachute used to be the shape of a circle. This wasn’t just a flat circle, instead it is more of half a sphere and it is hallow. Then there is the cords which hold the person. When you jump from something at a high altitude, you will fall really fast. When you open your parachute the wind that hits against you make it unfold upwards and so the cords hold you and you are like a weight which makes the parachute open up correctly, not upside down or something else and as a weight, you make the parachute get hit by more air which causes drag and so it slows you down and the you will land at a safe enough speed that you wont get hurt.

How parachutes solve the problem Parachutes solve the problem because now fighter pilots and other pilots except for airline airplanes, have parachutes and so when there are irreparable problems with them, the pilots can now eject and survive the fall so there are less deaths and it has helped wars and more.

What we did before we had parachutes Before parachutes were invented there was nothing replacing the life saving device. If there was a problem with a hot air balloon, people would fall to their deaths. The parachute is the first world wide device that saves people from falls like this at such grate heights. But air balloons were just invented when parachutes were first made so there used to be no problem at all because parachutes have other uses, like helping stop a drag racer, or a space shuttle, or even speed record braking cars. But before there was non of that, so there was no need for parachutes.

How parachutes improve our lives Parachutes have made our lives better because now there are less deaths and less losses of lives. Less soldiers lost and also soldiers defend the countries you live in and so they risk their lives for us and so we helped them with what we could because now they can be safer. Even though it is not just soldiers because what about astronauts, without parachutes they would not ever land on earth safely, or drag racers would have more accidents trying to slow down.

Improvements to parachutes through out time. Parachute were made when hot air balloons had just been invented. At that time people would jump with their parachute already opened. At that tie parachutes were like half a sphere that was pointing up and was like a little lump. Then the parachute cords were just weak and not too good and their straps around them were just the cords tied around the people. As the years past the world started to change, and after lots of years World War 1 started. In world war 1, there were airplanes, and so pilots had the risk of falling out of the airplanes. So the had parachutes. By this time people had made sort of back packs for the pilots to deploy manually. Parachutes where still circular at this time and so they hadn’t changed much.

There have been more great improvements though time. An they have lead to now. People now days use a different looking parachute. The kind the is used now looks like a rectangle which is also curved up when you are in mid air with it open. Also now it has cords made from a stronger material. All but two cords are attached to the person the bag which is strapped to his chest and legs. The to cords which aren’t attached the the bag are handles right beside the the jumper. With those handles they can turn and move more freely than with the past parachutes.

There is another kind of parachute device. In this one it not that much of a parachute, the parachute part is used as wings. Still there are cords, and its all lifted with the speed that an engine behind the pilot is. The engine is just a propeller in a cage so that nobody gets hurt and the engine is a small engine because there is no need for it to be big. Finally the pilot is sitting infront of the engine with a handle to control the speed and the 2 handles to move around.

The challenges parachutes got in our lives. Parachutes don’t have much problem which I know of. What I know is that the only problem is that when a parachute get really badly ruined, it gets thrown away, and it causes pollution like every thing else.

Timeline about parachutes World War 2 was a time when the parachute played a great role for people, because sometimes people could not attack from the ground and so they would have to attack from the air. People would not have survived falls from the height that an airplane would fly from and so they used parachutes to get soldiers or ammo or even food crates to the ground. These methods are still used in wars today. There have been more great improvements though time. An they have lead to now. People now days use a different looking parachute. The kind the is used now looks like a rectangle which is also curved up when you are in mid air with it open. Also now it has cords made from a stronger material. All but two cords are attached to the person the bag which is strapped to his chest and legs. The to cords which aren’t attached the the bag are handles right beside the the jumper. With those handles they can turn and move more freely than with the past parachutes. There is another kind of parachute device. In this one it not that much of a parachute, the parachute part is used as wings. Still there are cords, and its all lifted with the speed that an engine behind the pilot is. The engine is just a propeller in a cage so that nobody gets hurt and the engine is a small engine because there is no need for it to be big. Finally the pilot is sitting infront of the engine with a handle to control the speed and the 2 handles to move around. It was about 200 years ago when the parachute was first made, it started as a sport by jumping from hot air balloons and releasing their parachutes which were stuck on the side of the hot air balloon. The first ever jump was actually in October 1797 by André Jaques. After that, at the start of the 19 th century, it was when airplanes when made, and in 1912, that’s when people just started to jump from it. Also almost half way through the 19 th century that’s when the first person ever to open a parachute with a manually operated ripcord. Also the person who did this was a woman, her name was Tiny Broadwick and she did this on the 4 th of July 1940.

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