# who was the first person to use a parachute? 1-21-2000

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-first-person-to-use-a-parachute-1-21-2000/18498>\
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\
**Created:** [May 3, 2000, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-first-person-to-use-a-parachute-1-21-2000/18498 "2000-05-03T23:07:06Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![moon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f07891/32.png) [@moon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moon)\
**Post date:** [May 3, 2000, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-first-person-to-use-a-parachute-1-21-2000/18498/1 "2000-05-03T23:07:06Z")

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I recently found in my archives a list of interesting facts (from an email no doubt) and found this interesting fact that does not correspond to Cecil’s answer to the original question:  
The parachute was invented by Leonardo da Vinci in 1515.  
If Leonardo invented it - than he must have been the first to use it!  
Go here to visit Cecil’s archived article on this subject:  
[http://www.straightdope.com/columns/000121.html](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/000121.html)  
🙂

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**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\
**Post date:** [May 3, 2000, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-first-person-to-use-a-parachute-1-21-2000/18498/2 "2000-05-03T23:46:30Z")

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Remember that Leonardo da Vinci sketched many things that were never built (e.g. flying machines.)

Here are a couple of related links.

[History of Parachuting](http://www.8wing.trenton.dnd.ca/cfpmd/phistory.htm)

[An englishman attempting to build a parachute from Leonardo da Vinci’s sketch](http://www.smh.com.au/news/0003/18/review/review19.html)

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**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\
**Post date:** [May 4, 2000, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-first-person-to-use-a-parachute-1-21-2000/18498/3 "2000-05-04T21:46:06Z")

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Hey, Arnold, get out of the way and let me in here, I wanna be the first one to shake this newbie’s hand and welcome him to the Straight Dope Message Board.

Talk about doing everything right! Interesting question, link to column included, plus he actually _looked through the Archives!_ Whoa!

Golly. It won’t last, right? You’re just passing through on your way back up to Heaven? Well, it was nice knowing you. I think you set some kind of newbie world’s record for “swiftness of uptake”.

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**Author:** ![andros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e480ec/32.png) [@andros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andros)\
**Post date:** [May 4, 2000, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-first-person-to-use-a-parachute-1-21-2000/18498/4 "2000-05-04T23:24:26Z")

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Er, **NTM** it seems that our new friend **Moon** was looking through his/her OWN archives, not the site archives.

Not that it should in any way detract from the welcome. Hi there, **Moon**.

Another lovely example from the DaVinci sketchbooks is the “helicopter.” The man was pretty interested (ok, obsessed) with human flight. But he never flew himself, of course (well, not that we know of, but he would certainly have blown his own horn if he’d manages to fly using any of his designs).