"If a man is provided with a length of gummed linen cloth with a length of 12 yards on each side and 12 yards high, he can jump from any great height whatsoever without injury." --note accompanying sketch in da Vinci's notebook

invention: n. (U.S. Patent Law.) a new, useful process, machine, improvement, etc., that did not exist previously and that is recognized as the product of some unique intuition or genius, as distinguished from ordinary mechanics or craftsmanship.

Inspiration:

Da Vinci's lifelong ambition was to fly. He spent much of his life studying birds, trying to discern how to give man the power of flight. The parachute sketch might have signaled the start of his investigation into flight, which ultimately led to the creation of the glider and other flying machines. Leonardo also knew that, should his other flying machines be put to use, there would need to be some form of protection for those inside in the case of a malfunction. The parachute could ensure, or at least increase, safety aboard Da Vinci's flight craft. (to learn about some of these other flying machines, click on the following links) 

The Flight Craft

The Helicopter

Parachute (Due)

The Glider

The Glider (Due)

The Renaissance Parachute:

While Leonardo da Vinci is often credited with designing the original parachute, based on the 1483 sketch of the parachute in his notebooks, this device was possibly first mentioned in ancient Chinese texts in the 1100's. In fact, the first Renaissance parachute drawing appears in the 1470's, shortly before Da Vinci's design (see picture below). However, Da Vinci's pyramidical sketch seems to be the first carefully-designed parachute crafted with enough attention to detail to be put to use. This design advised that the parachute consist of sealed linen cloth held atop of a pyramidic frame of seven-meter-long wooden poles (each pole was the length of a modern limosine). Unlike modern parachutes, there was no hole at the top of Leonardo's because he relied on the porous linen for stability and air flow. In 1595, Croatian scientist and inventor Faust Vranic followed Leonardo da Vinci's parachute sketch to create the first parachute in 1595, named Homo Volans. Interestingly, official credit for the parachute often goes neither to Da Vinci nor Vranic but to scientist Sebastien Lenormand who demostrated the parachute principle centuries later in 1783.

The first conical parachute design, by an anonymous author                                                                                   Faust Vranic's Homo Volans

The parachute should allow a person to safely jump from a great height, and, while its lack of a harness inspired doubt as to its safety for centuries, a test in 2000 has proved it effective. On June 26, 2000, British skydiver Adrian Nicholas jumped 3000 meters from a hot air balloon using this design and found the ride to be smoother, in fact, than one with a modern parachute. In the last 600 meters, Nicholas switched to a modern parachute to avoid being crushed by Leonardo's 85-90 kilogram device. 

Adrian Nicholas' 2000 test flight of Da Vinci's parachute 

Evolution of the Parachute:

After Faust Vranic's parachute test, a jump in Venice in 1617, no further parachute developments occured for over a century. In the late 18th century, 1783, Jacques and Joseph Montgolfier experimented with lowering animals from rooves or balloons via parachute. In that same year, Sebastien Lenormand developed and tested a 14 foot (approximately 5 meters) diameter conical parachute, similar to Leonardo's in its wooden frame. Soon after, the man credited with the first emergency parachute jump, Jean Pierre Blanchard, developed a silk parachute, the earliest design without a rigid frame.

In 1797 this new prototype was tested by Andre-Jacques Garnerin in an 8000 foot drop and discovered to be unstable because of the fluttering cloth. Garnerin suggested that a hole be cut in the canopy of the parachute to allow air flow and decrease the vibrations. His suggestion was immediately followed, and Garnerin is credited with the invention of the frameless parachute. Even modern parachutes follow this design; the opening in the top of the parachute is now called the vent. In the century after Garnerin's invention, parachutes were not developed further and were mainly used for carnival acts, although popularity of such daredevil stunts decreased after the first casuality in 1837.

Garnerin's Parachute

The next important step in the evolution of the modern parachute came in 1887, when Captain Thomas Baldwin developed a harness to increase parachute safety. Parachutes were made to be more portable when Paul Lettemen and Kathchen Paulus designed packinging in 1890. After the first airplane jumps in the early 20th century, Leslie Irvin and Floyd Smith of Wright Field developed  the ripcord, used for deploying the parachute. Parachutes continued to be made of silk until the 1930's, when development of several different modern parachute designs began. 

Modern and Historical Uses:

Parachutes are used for pilots' safety everywhere. All planes, military or commercial, have parachutes to allow people to safely float to the ground in the case of an emergency. In addition to their use in aviation, parachutes have been used for the NASA space program, war efforts, and recreation.

NASA Space Travel: 

     In many of the NASA Space programs, beginning with Mercury and Gemini, parachutes have been used when the space capsules return to Earth to slow their descent. The eight Apollo missions all used a three-stage parachute deployment system to slow the 11,000 pound lunar command capsules as the approached the Pacific Oceans. The parachutes fell off before splashdow so as to avoid trapping the craft in a current; NASA wanted to keep the capsule floating in one place as much as possible. Currently, a similar system is being tested for the retrieval of the Orion missions, a new lunar and possible Martian program in process. The three stage deployment system involves two drogue parachutes, which initially slow the module before falling off, and three pilot parachutes, which slow the parachute and assist in the deployment of the three enormous main parachutes (see video below for demonstration).

          Parachutes slow Apollo 10 as it rushes towards splashdown in the Pacific.                                       Three stage parachute deployment system to be used for Orion.   

World War II:

     While the Germans first used parachutes to mobilize troops in World War II, the most famous use of parachuting soldiers (paratroopers) in World War II was the Allied Operation "Overlord," the Allied invasion of Normandy on D-Day (June 6, 1944). Late at night on June 5, many paratrooper and glider forces were deployed in the most ambitious airborne mission of the war. The airborne component, also known as Operation "Neptune," landed in France around midnight on June 6, going behind German lines on the Cotentin. The most famous divisions of this mission were the American 82nd and 101st Airborne, which took the small town of Sainte Mere-Eglise and provided backup to the soldiers in the bloodbath at Omaha Beach. This airborne attack was vital to the success of the invasion at Omaha, Utah, Gold, Sword, and Juno Beaches.

         A D-Day paratrooper floats to France.                        The midnight paratrooper drop                                 A soldier rests after the battle of Sainte Mere-Eglise.

Skydiving:

     In addition to being the inventer of the frameless parachute, Andre-Jacques Garnerin was the world's first skydiver. As there obviously were no planes in the 1790's, he jumped from hot air balloons. The first skydiving plane jump was not until 1913, when American woman Tiny Broadwick lept off of an airplane to prove that people could survive a parachute jump without lapsing into unconciousness. Despite her jump, skydiving did not become popular until the conclusion of World War II. The immense success of parachute airborne invasions, as well as the return en masse of veteran paratroopers, greatly increased skydiving's participant population. Parachute-jumping was dubbed skydiving as the war drew to a close, and skydiving schools began to crop up in 1957. Now, there are more than 250 parachuting centers in the USA officially recognized by USPA (United States Parachuting Association), each known as a "drop zone." Many parachuting competitions exist nationally, and there is even a Parachuting World Cup in which a US skydiving team participates.

                            Skydivers entering the drop zone.                                                     A lone skydiver                     Medalists in 2009 Parachuting World Cup

Impact:

While the parachute has contributed to war efforts, for instance facilitating the airborne Allied invasion of Normandy in World War II, parachutes are mainly used for saving lives. This invention has rescued countless pilots, plane passangers, and astronauts alike. Overall, the parachute would seem to have beneficially affected the world. I think Da Vinci would have expected the parachute to have such an effect and would not be overly surprised by the modern parachute. Although I doubt he could have predicted the transformation of the glider into the modern jet or the alterations of the helicopter, the parachute serves the same purpose as Da Vinci intended: to allow a man to "jump from any great height whatsoever without injury."

Sources:

fc01.deviantart.com/.../parachute_by_donkirk.gif (animations at top)

credit for video goes to NASA.