Interesting Facts about Skydiving

Space Land Big Way

Most people know that skydiving involves jumping from a perfectly good airplane, floating down, deploying a parachute and landing. However, if that is all you think there is to skydiving, you may be surprised! Though a popular sport today did, you know that it has been around since 1797? Andre-Jacques Garnerin successfully jumped from hot air balloons in 1797. It is fitting that the first woman to parachute was the wife of the inventor of the device. Jeanne-Genevieve Garnerin was the first woman to ever make a parachute jump in 1799. Here are a few more interesting facts about skydiving.

Danger

There is a common misconception that parachuting or skydiving is dangerous, and considering human beings are jumping from extremely high altitudes with little between them and certain death this is a fair assumption. However, it is also false, throughout out the United States there are only about 30 deaths per year attributed to the sport. This is approximately 1 death per 100,000 jumps or .001%.

Safety equipment and regulations are so strict that very few accidents occur. In the US, a skydiver is required to jump with two chutes, a main and backup. The backup or reserve parachute must … Read more at FryingPanSports