Instead, it crashed when the parachute collapsed on the balloon. Undeterred, the 12-year-old gathered the parachute and balloon and placed her experiment on a table. Clark pulled at the plastic.

Floyd Smith, patent 1,462,456 for a parachute pack and harness, 1919 image: Google Patents I recently went skydiving for the first time. It was possibly the most exhilarating thing I’ve ever ...

It wasn’t a military expert or an aviation pioneer, but a Russian actor who developed the first viable parachute Jimmy Stamp Floyd Smith, patent 1,462,456 for a parachute pack and harness, 1919 ...