Photo: Luke Sharrett / Getty Images
Leslie Irvin was the inventor of the “rope ripper” parachute system and, in 1919, was the first man to make a premeditated free fall jump from an airplane.
Irvin himself made his first parachute drop with 14 years. Five years later, he became a stuntman for a fledgling California movie industry, doing stunts on suspended trapezes under hot air balloons and then descending using a parachute.
During World War I, Irvin joined the Army Air Service Parachute Research Team,
serving near Dayton, Ohio. Advances in aviation had created new needs for parachute use, including saving people from a downed plane.
During the war, Irvin helped develop a static-line parachute, which was quickly recognized as an important piece of parachute aviation team and, in June of 1200, Irvin created Irvin Air Chute to make parachutes for the US government.
Leslie Irvin volunteered to test this new parachuteas by jumping from an airplane, this was the first jump from the sky with a free fall parachute.
With pilot James Floyd Smith piloting the plane, Irvin made the leap, the new parachute worked perfectly, although Irvin broke his ankle on landing
In 1930 he opened a factory a in the United Kingdom, at Letchworth and, at the end of the decade of 1930, Irvin parachutes were used all over the world.
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