Skydiving History

[Tuna-Salad 0]

History states that parachutes have been around for quite a while, but is there any record of when the first free fall skydive for sport purposes was done? This may seem like a pointless question but I was hoping to learn more about the history of our sport.

Millions of my potential children died on your daughters' face last night.

[labrys 0]

I think it was Tiny Broadwick and that it was a accident (malfunction)

Edit to add: I've read a couple of versions of the "free fall" she did. Some say it was accidental and some say it was intentional.... thus it might have been the first sport freefall or not.

Owned by Remi #?

[howardwhite 6]

Gaah... where to begin?
When did something else (a barnstorming stunt, a combat jump, a test jump of an bailout rig) turn into a "sport jump?"
Were the thousands of young Russians doing training jumps in the 1930s doing it for "sport," or training for combat?
My off-the-top-of-my-head answer is that somewhere in central Europe in the late 40s or early 50s some people decided that since they were jumping out of airplanes anyway, they might as well call it a sport.
In any event, I wouldn't call Tiny Broadwick a sport jumper.
So the next question is: "Who invented the term "skydiving?"


HW

[MakeItHappen 15]

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Gaah... where to begin?
When did something else (a barnstorming stunt, a combat jump, a test jump of an bailout rig) turn into a "sport jump?"
Were the thousands of young Russians doing training jumps in the 1930s doing it for "sport," or training for combat?
My off-the-top-of-my-head answer is that somewhere in central Europe in the late 40s or early 50s some people decided that since they were jumping out of airplanes anyway, they might as well call it a sport.
In any event, I wouldn't call Tiny Broadwick a sport jumper.
So the next question is: "Who invented the term "skydiving?"


HW

Would Joe Crane doing Spot Landing Competitions in the 1920's count as a 'sport'?

re skydiving:
Jaques Istel.

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Make It Happen
Parachute History
DiveMaker

[howardwhite 6]

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Would Joe Crane doing Spot Landing Competitions in the 1920's count as a 'sport'?

Possibly, if you don't count freefall activity as a component of "sport jumping," as suggested by the original poster.

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re skydiving:
Jaques Istel.

No. I discussed this with him a few months ago. He had talked in the mid-fifties with another person (who has been credited with coining the term) about using it but considered it "too acrobatic" for the activity he was starting to promote -- he preferred "sport parachuting." Much later he registered the term "The Skydiver." (see ® mark on the attached bumper sticker.)

HW

[councilman24 37]

I had some decals with that design on them. Think I still have one. No wording though.

I'm old for my age.
Terry Urban
D-8631
FAA DPRE

[howardwhite 6]

Here's a decal from PI.
The design is kinda similar to the skydivers on the National Skydiving Museum logo.

HW

[councilman24 37]

Yep, I've got one or two of the PI decals unused. Hmm, I think they are decals rather than stickers.

I'm old for my age.
Terry Urban
D-8631
FAA DPRE

[tonybrogdon 0]

My friend Smitty the Jumper should always be included in the history of free fall.
He built his first rig (horse harness maker made his harness) and made his first parachute without ever seeing a parachute made several jumps.This all happened in 1922. He was a barnstormer and went from farmers field to farmers field jumping using up to two reserves and opeing below tree top level.
The term pioneer for sure applies.

Tony Brogdon
D-12855

[howardwhite 6]

No question Smitty was a pioneer (as well as a character.) I met him several times at boogies, and have a couple of his pamphlets, autographed.
But though he (and Tiny Broadwick) were warmly embraced by the sport skydiving community, I don't think he would have considered himself a sport jumper.

HW

[tonybrogdon 0]

Smitty loved to be considered as both a pioneer and a member of POPS and loved to hang around drop zones. I met him in 1977 in Hutchin, Kansas on the day I made my first jump. We became friends. I payed for him to come to Perris on Dec 15th, 1985 where he made a tandem surronded in freefall by the Coors skydiving team. His son Jerry came along and made a tandem. He died at age 92 a year after making his last jump , a demo at Oshcosh. Hi sjump stories would surpass any that I know of.

Tony Brogdon
D-12855

[tonybrogdon 0]

A foot note of skydiving as a sport. With the term sport comes competition. If I have the right information the first Officail Competition was between the Russian Military and the Chinese Military. 19??.

Tony Brogdon
D-12855

[No_Phear 0]

From the History channel encyclopedia:

(Fr. para, “preventing”; chute, “fall”), large, umbrella-shaped fabric canopy used to reduce the speed of a person or object falling through the air, and carried as an escape device in aircraft. The use of the parachute was first suggested by Leonardo da Vinci, but the first practical parachute was invented in the 1780s. The French aeronaut Jean Pierre Blanchard dropped a dog equipped with a parachute from a balloon in 1785, and in 1793 claimed to have made the first successful human parachute descent. After this time parachutes became a regular part of the equipment of balloonists, and after World War I were adopted as lifesaving devices for the pilots and passengers of airplanes.

sport parachuting, an outgrowth of early 20th-century barnstorming and, later, of military parachuting. The development of new training techniques and equipment have contributed to the safety and enjoyment of the sport. Modern skydivers typically free-fall from 3657 m (12,000 ft) above the ground until 762 m (2500 ft), where they open their parachutes. They maneuver in free-fall by controlling the position of their bodies. The use of steerable parachutes that allow soft, precision landings has greatly increased the sport’s popularity. A first jump can be made safely after four hours of professional instruction.

Skydiving emerged as an international sport in 1951, when competitors from five countries met in Yugoslavia in the first world championships. Early competitions, dating back to the 1930s, were limited to accuracy in landing on target. Later, as skydivers learned to control their bodies in free-fall, they added a so-called style event. In this event free-falling contestants perform a series of aerobatic maneuvers before reaching parachute-opening altitude. In the most popular form of competition, teams of free-falling skydivers form predetermined geometric patterns, racing to build the greatest number of patterns in the allotted time. More than 30 countries participate in world championships, which are held every two years for each of these events.

Tact is not my specialty.....

Dirty Sanchez #453

[howardwhite 6]

Here's a picture of Smitty with his "rig." I think I took it but have no idea when or where. One of the people is looking over his brochure; I've got a couple of copies of it.

HW

[tonybrogdon 0]

Thanks very much for the photo. He brought hi srig to Perris Dec 15th, 1985. An incredible pioneer of our sport.
Tony

Tony Brogdon
D-12855

[CazmoDee 3]

Your picture looked so familiar, I had to check. When my dad found out I was jumping at Zhills, he dug up this old photo to show me. It's Smitty and that same crazy rig. The brochures are there and I think it may even be the same car. He took it in April of '76. Hope this maybe helps with the when and where.

Blues

I'm behind the bar at Sloppy Joe's....See ya in the Keys!

Muff 4313

[howardwhite 6]

Could be. I was probably there (Easter Boogie.)

HW

[tonybrogdon 0]

As you know Smittys first parachute was made with a car steering wheel, a horse harness maker made his harness and his parachute was made of a silk bed sheet.

Tony Brogdon
D-12855

[lodestar 0]

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Your picture looked so familiar, I had to check. When my dad found out I was jumping at Zhills, he dug up this old photo to show me. It's Smitty and that same crazy rig. The brochures are there and I think it may even be the same car. He took it in April of '76. Hope this maybe helps with the when and where.

Blues

Hey Cazmo,
That picture looks an awful lot like the zhills packing shed, what was your dad's name? I may have still been at the hills that year and may know him.

[SkydiveJack 1]

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Your picture looked so familiar, I had to check. When my dad found out I was jumping at Zhills, he dug up this old photo to show me. It's Smitty and that same crazy rig. The brochures are there and I think it may even be the same car. He took it in April of '76. Hope this maybe helps with the when and where.

Blues

That’s defiantly the old Z-hills covered packing area in the background.

In your first photo it looks like Smitty on the left and Chet Poland on the right. Is that your Dad in the middle?

In your second photo, the guy just to the right of Smitty looks like a person in another photo posted in this thread.

[CazmoDee 3]

My dad's name is Hale Castleman. Our home dropzone back in the '70's was West Point (SkyDive the Point). He actually took the pic. I believe the guy in the middle is Gus Gutshall. He use to jump with my dad in Virginia. I think he lives in Lutz Florida now.

I added a photo of the crew I grew up around at West Point. My dad's in the pic.

I'm behind the bar at Sloppy Joe's....See ya in the Keys!

Muff 4313

[Jim_Hooper 4]

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I believe the guy in the middle is Gus Gutshall.

I first met Gus Gutshall in 1966 when he was running the 7th Army Parachute Team in Germany. During WWII he flew P-40Ns in China with the 23rd Pursuit Group, which was first formed by the Flying Tigers.

And yeah, that's the old Z'hills packing shed.

Hoop

[howardwhite 6]

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Were the thousands of young Russians doing training jumps in the 1930s doing it for "sport," or training for combat?

Responding to my own question.
The first two are from 1935 and 1936, the last from 1951.

HW

[MakeItHappen 15]

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So the next question is: "Who invented the term "skydiving?"

Raymond Young is purportedly to have coined 'skydiver'.

There are different accounts and I don't have them at my fingertips right now, so I do not know one way or another whether 'skydiving' was Raymond Young or Jaques Istel.

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Make It Happen
Parachute History
DiveMaker

[howardwhite 6]

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Raymond Young is purportedly to have coined 'skydiver'.

Poynter and Turoff, on the USPA web site:

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People first heard the term "skydiver," coined by Raymond Young in the mid-1950s, as the first commercial skydiving centers opened. By 1957, the first commercial skydiving schools began to appear...

I have pointed out to Mr. Poynter that, AFAIK, the first commercial skydiving center opened May 2, 1959 and that the article cited as the source for credit to Mr. Young doesn't use the word "skydiving."

HW