- André-Jacques Garnerin
André-Jacques Garnerin (
January 31 1769 -August 18 1823 ) was the inventor of the framelessparachute . He was born inParis .His early experiments were based on umbrella-shaped devices. He was captured by British troops during the first phase of the
Napoleonic Wars 1792 - 1797, turned over to the Austrians and held a prisoner in Buda in Hungary for three years.After his release, Garnerin was involved with the flight of
hot air balloon s. He carried out the first jump with aSilk parachute onOctober 22 1797 , jumping out of a balloon overParc Monceau ,Paris . After a descent of convert|3000|ft|m|-2, he landed without injury in front of an admiring crowd. On October 3-4 1803, he covered a distance of 245 miles (395 km) between Paris andClausen with his balloon.His wife Jeanne-Geneviève was the first female parachutist; as no real material parachute can sustain its entire flight without some positive above-zero glide ratio, then for some, if not almost all of her descent was in a gliding parachute (subset of hang gliders) and thus she was the best candidate for being the first woman hang glider rider.
Garnerin died in a construction accident while making a balloon in Paris. He was hit by a beam.
External links
* [http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/AVgarnerin.htm Brief biography and picture]
* [http://www.printsgeorge.com/ArtEccles_Aeronauts5.htm Additional information on Garnerin]
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