the.com/parachute
a bedsheet that negotiates with gravity and somehow keeps winning the argument.
means a fabric canopy that fills with air to slow a falling person or object to a safe landing speed.
from A French coinage stitched together from 'para-' (to guard against, as in 'parasol,' from Italian 'parare,' to shield) and 'chute' (a fall). So literally: a guard-against-falling. The word was minted in the late 18th century, in the era when balloonists were first looking down and thinking very hard about the way back.
- da vinci
- He sketched a working pyramid chute around 1485.
- first jump
- André Garnerin leapt from a balloon in 1797.
- terminal speed
- It cuts a 120-mph fall to walking pace.
- silk roots
- Early canopies used the same silk as parachute pants.
- reserve rule
- Skydivers legally carry a second chute, repacked yearly.
for instance
kitty hawk flyer i — wright brothers' first powered aircraft, december 17, 1903, 12 seconds of flight