parachute

Any canopied fabric device strapped to a person or a package, used to slow down descent from a high altitude, or returning spent missiles or parts to a safe speed for landing, or sometimes to aid (through braking) the landing of a plane or missile. Modern designs enable the parachutist to exercise considerable control of direction, as in skydiving.

Leonardo da Vinci sketched a parachute design, but the first descent, from a balloon at a height of 670 m/2,200 ft over Paris, was not made until 1797 by André-Jacques Garnerin (1769-1823). The first descent from an aircraft was made by Capt Albert Berry in 1912 from a height of 457 m/1,500 ft over Missouri.

A parachute is typically folded into a pack from which it is released by a rip cord or other device. It originally consisted of some two dozen panels of silk, Garnerin's parachute was canvas, (later nylon) in a circular canopy with shroud lines to a harness. Modern parachutes are variously shaped, often small and rectangular.

In parascending the parachuting procedure is reversed, the canopy (parafoil) to which the person is attached being towed behind a vehicle to achieve an ascent.