If you’ve ever jumped out of a plane or watched a Red Bull athlete soar toward Earth, you probably didn't think about a 15th-century manuscript. But you should have. Most people think the inventor of the parachute was some daredevil from the 1700s, or maybe Leonardo da Vinci.
The truth? It’s complicated. It's way messier than a single name on a patent.
We’re talking about a device that literally fights gravity. For centuries, the idea of surviving a fall from a tower or a balloon was pure science fiction. People died trying to figure this out. They jumped off bridges with umbrellas. They strapped bat wings to their arms. Honestly, the history of the parachute is a long list of people hitting the ground very hard until someone finally got the math right.
Leonardo da Vinci and the Pyramid of Linen
Let's start with the guy everyone knows. Leonardo da Vinci sketched a parachute in his notebook around 1485. He didn't build it. He just drew a wooden frame covered in linen, shaped like a pyramid. He claimed that with this contraption, a man could "throw himself down from any great height without suffering any injury."
It looked cool. It looked futuristic. But was he truly the inventor of the parachute?
Probably not.
See, modern historians, including those at the British Museum, have pointed out that an anonymous author in Italy wrote a manuscript years before Leonardo that featured a conical parachute design. Leonardo likely saw it and improved the geometry. But even Leonardo's design had a fatal flaw: the weight. When Adrian Nicholas actually built and tested Leonardo’s design in 2000, he survived—but only because he used modern materials for the harness and cut himself loose before the heavy wooden frame crushed him upon landing. It was a "sorta" success, but hardly a functional invention for the masses.
The Man Who Actually Jumped: Louis-Sébastien Lenormand
Fast forward to 1783. This is where things get real. Louis-Sébastien Lenormand is the guy who actually coined the word "parachute." He combined the Greek para (against) and the French chute (fall). Simple. Effective.
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Lenormand wasn't just a theorist. He was a bit of a madman. He jumped from the tower of the Montpellier observatory in France using a 14-foot cloth canopy with a wooden frame. He lived. He didn't even break a leg.
His goal? He wanted a way for people to escape burning buildings. He wasn't thinking about airplanes—they didn't exist yet. He was thinking about fire safety. This is a nuance most history books skip. The parachute wasn't born from a desire to fly; it was born from a desire not to burn to death in a high-rise.
Why André-Jacques Garnerin is the Real Hero Here
If Lenormand gave us the name, André-Jacques Garnerin gave us the "fear factor." In 1797, Garnerin became the first person to jump from a high altitude using a non-rigid parachute.
Imagine this.
You’re in a hydrogen balloon. You’re 3,000 feet in the air. You cut the rope connecting your basket to the balloon. You start plummeting.
Garnerin’s parachute was basically a giant silk umbrella. Because it didn't have a vent at the top, the air trapped inside spilled out the sides, causing the basket to swing violently. Witnesses said he looked like he was going to be sick. He actually was sick. But he landed safely in Parc Monceau in Paris.
His wife, Jeanne-Geneviève, later became the first female parachutist. Talk about a power couple. They took the concept of the inventor of the parachute and turned it into a public spectacle, proving that you didn't need a heavy wooden frame to stay alive.
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The "Hole" That Changed Everything
One of the biggest problems with early parachutes was the "oscillation." That's just a fancy word for swinging like a pendulum. If you swing too hard, you hit the ground sideways, which is a great way to break every bone in your body.
It wasn't until a British astronomer named Edward Lowy suggested putting a hole in the top—a vent—that the parachute became stable. This allowed some air to pass through the center, keeping the canopy steady. It sounds counterintuitive. Why put a hole in the thing meant to catch air? But physics is weird like that. Without that hole, modern skydiving would basically be a game of human tetherball.
The Move to the "Knapsack"
For a long time, parachutes were just hanging open under balloons. You couldn't exactly "wear" one. That changed with Stefan Banic and Gleb Kotelnikov.
Kotelnikov was a Russian actor. He witnessed the death of a pilot in 1910 and became obsessed with making a portable parachute. He created a knapsack version made of silk. Around the same time, Banic, a Slovak immigrant in the US, patented a "body-mounted" parachute that looked a bit like an umbrella attached to the back.
Then came Georgia "Tiny" Broadwick. She was the first person to jump from an airplane and, more importantly, the first to demonstrate a manually operated parachute. Before her, parachutes were triggered by a static line attached to the plane. In 1914, she cut the line and pulled it herself. She basically invented the ripcord.
Myths and Misconceptions
People love to argue about who the "real" inventor of the parachute is. Was it the Chinese? There are legends from the 12th century about acrobats using umbrellas to jump from high places. There’s a story about a guy named He-Yue who survived a fall by holding onto two umbrellas.
Is that a parachute? Technically, yes. It's a drag device.
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But there’s a massive difference between an umbrella and a engineered life-saving device.
- Myth 1: Da Vinci invented the parachute. (No, he drew a version of one).
- Myth 2: Parachutes were invented for pilots in WWI. (Actually, many generals refused to give pilots parachutes because they thought it would encourage them to bail out rather than save the expensive plane).
- Myth 3: It’s always been made of silk. (Early ones were linen, canvas, and eventually nylon during WWII because silk was needed for other things).
How the Tech Shifted in 2026
By now, we aren't just using round "jellyfish" chutes. We have ram-air canopies that act like flexible wings. These allow jumpers to steer with incredible precision. In the last few years, materials science has pushed this even further. We now see ultra-lightweight polymers that are stronger than steel but fold into the size of a loaf of bread.
The evolution from a pyramid of wood to a carbon-fiber reinforced wing is staggering.
Actionable Insights for History Buffs and Skydivers
If you're looking to understand the legacy of the inventor of the parachute, don't just look at one name. Look at the progression of the "vent" and the "harness."
- Check the Vents: If you ever look at a vintage parachute, look for the apex vent. That's the secret to not dying.
- Verify the Materials: Real parachute history is a history of textiles. Transitioning from linen to silk to nylon changed the weight-to-drag ratio entirely.
- Visit the Sources: The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum holds some of the most critical early parachute artifacts. Seeing them in person shows you just how flimsy—and terrifying—those early designs actually were.
- Understand the Physics: It’s not about stopping the fall; it's about terminal velocity. A parachute just increases your surface area to ensure your terminal velocity is slow enough that your legs don't snap upon impact.
The next time you see a skydiver, remember Lenormand jumping off an observatory or Garnerin getting airsick over Paris. They weren't just inventors; they were the first people brave enough to bet their lives on a piece of laundry.
To truly appreciate the engineering, one should study the development of the "Drogue" chute, which stabilizes high-speed falls. This specific sub-invention allowed for the safe ejection of pilots from supersonic jets, a far cry from the linen pyramids of the 1400s. Researching the work of the Irvin Air Chute Company—the first to receive a large-scale government contract—provides the best industrial perspective on how this tech went from a circus act to a standard safety requirement.