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parachute

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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.



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? Mentioned in ? References in classic literature
 
I said these words did him extreme credit, but that he must not throw away the imperishable distinction of being the first man to descend an Alp per parachute, simply to save the feelings of some envious underlings.
I have not a word to say against the misused, faithful girl, and would not withhold from her grave a single one of those simple tributes which blighted youths and maidens offer to her memory, but I am sorry enough that I have not time and opportunity to write four or five volumes of my opinion of her friend the founder of the Parachute, or the Paraclete, or whatever it was.
The top of the buggy caught the air like a parachute or an umbrella filled with wind, and held them back so that they floated downward with a gentle motion that was not so very disagreeable to bear.
 
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