Leonardo da Vinci Parachute
Leonardo da Vinci Parachute most likely came about as he was testing the feasibility of one of his flying machines. Although he himself probably did not get into any of the machines (most likely one of his apprentices – Leonardo would have been an old man at the time) he still would have realized that the designs were unstable and/or downright dangerous.
When did leonardo da vinci invent the parachute is dated to 1485, and Fausto Veranzio or Faust Vrančić (1551–1617) studied Leonardo da Vinci’s sketches of the parachute and kept the square frame, but replaced the canopy with a bulging sail-like fabric, which he realized was slowing the more efficient in terms of fall speed.
As you can see from the image below, it simply shows a man hanging onto the parachute by his bare hands. it is a very simplified design and Leonardo da Vinci invented parachute.
Leonardo da Vinci’s Parachute
To the left hand side of the parachute drawing are the words (in typical mirror writing),
“If a man have a tent made of linen of which the apertures (openings) have all been stopped up, and it be twelve braccia (about 23 feet) across and twelve in depth, he will be able to throw himself down from any great height without suffering any injury.”Leonardo clearly had confidence in his own design and had done some mathematical calculations, possibly based on some of his wind resistance and friction studies. But the question remains.
The First Test of Leonardo da Vinci Parachute
The First test of Leonardo da Vinci Parachute
Since Leonardo da Vinci’s parachute design had never been tested, Adrian Nicholas, a British skydiver, wanted to confirm the theory. Katarina Ollikainen (Nicholas’ girlfriend) built a prototype based on Leonardo da Vinci’s sketches, even using only period-appropriate tools and materials.
The parachute is shaped like a square pyramid and measures 24 feet by 24 feet. Cover all four sides with airtight burlap. Contrary to expert speculation, Nicholas attempted to jump out of the hot air balloon from an altitude of nearly 10,000 feet.
The only worry was landing, the fear that the 187-pound contraption would crush him. Because of this, he started skydiving from Leonardo and didn’t break free and land with a modern parachute until he reached an altitude of about 2,000 feet. He found that the flight of da Vinci’s sketch was smoother than that of a modern parachute.
Nicholas commented, “It took one of the greatest minds who ever lived to design it, but it took 500 years to find a man with a brain small enough to actually go and fly it.”
So essentially, combining the glider, parachute, landing gear and helicopter, Leonardo almost invented all modern forms of air transport, unfortunately as is nearly always the case, Leonardo was born several centuries before the rest of humanity and the science of the time was ready for him.
