At the end of World War I, parachutes were not standard equipment for military pilots. To address concerns about parachute use, inventor Floyd Smith designed the first parachute with a Specificationly pulled cord, an invention that changed the world of aviation and saved the lives of countless pilots.
inventor floyd smith
invent with love
In April 1914, Floyd Smith's wife, Hilde, was also his partner in the aerobatic performance. After a thrilling flight performance in which the parachute could not be opened, Smith was determined to invent a safer landing method. installation.
James Floyd Smith was born in Illinois in 1884. When he was young, he was a trapeze artist in a circus called "Flying Sylvester" in California. There he met the love of his life—Hilde, and soon married her. They spent five years in the circus together before pursuing a new hobby—flying. It was the era when airplanes were just starting to take to the skies, and they saved some money to spend on aeronautical research and build their own, just in 1912, just before the Wright Brothers made their first successful flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina 9 years have just passed. Since then, the couple have been on a "tour" of aerial stunts across the country.
At the time, Floyd was also working as a test pilot for Glenn L. Martin, a prominent aircraft designer and builder. In 1915, he set a new altitude record over San Diego, and in 1917, he made the first landing on an aircraft carrier, which was also the first ever.
At this time, during the height of World War I, aircraft were used for the first time in combat, initially for reconnaissance and shortly thereafter for bombing. The number of army pilots grew rapidly, and celebrity pilots of all stripes emerged, such as Germany's "Red Baron" Manfred Albrecht Freiher von Schiehofen. However, very few of them skydive, and very few of them are equipped with parachutes on board. At that time, many military strategists believed that the parachute was too bulky and would affect the performance of the aircraft. And more people worry that "the existence of this equipment will damage the fighting spirit of the pilots, causing them to abandon the machines that could have been returned to the base for maintenance." However, as pilot casualties increased, inventors around the world began to work on new parachute. Ensuring the safety of pilots has become a top design consideration in more countries.
At this time, Floyd's beloved wife also nearly died because of a parachute failure during an air show. Floyd was keenly aware that the military would use more and more aircraft in the future, and the parachute would A must for becoming a pilot. At this time, there is only one static bag on the plane, and the parachute is often only fixed on the plane by a rope. If you don't jump correctly, the parachute bag will malfunction; or the rope will become entangled with the aircraft if it gets too close.
In July 1918, Smith filed a patent application for a new type of parachute in the name of the newly formed Floyd Smith Aeronautical Equipment Company: US Patent No. 1340,423. Dubbed the "Floyd Smith Air Survival Kit," it was the first parachute to rely on Specificationly operated cables. As the patent specification puts it, the newly invented parachute "uses a method of completely releasing the parachute [from the aircraft], allowing it to open completely freely in the air current." The design is remarkably simple: a piece of waterproof fabric wrapped in a silk parachutes, then held together with rubber bands that release when the skydiver pulls the line.
The accompanying drawing of US Patent 1340,423, this is the first parachute with a Specificationly pulled rope.
Friendship prompts parachute renewal and iteration
Smith's invention quickly caught the attention of an Army major, EL Hoffman, and in December 1918, just one month after the Armistice of World War I, the U.S. Army Air Corps began forming at McCulfield in Dayton, Ohio Parachute Research Team. Smith was recruited into the research team. In the early spring of 1919, the research team tested 17 different types of parachutes from around the world, eventually settling on a slightly modified version of Smith's design.
Smith's colleague on the research team, Leslie Irvin, volunteered to conduct the first skydive trials using the new design. On April 28, 1919, the de Havilland DH9 biplane driven by Smith carried Owen to an altitude of 1,500 feet. Owen pulled the rope a few seconds after jumping out of the cabin, and the silk parachute was fully deployed at an altitude of 1,000 feet. Then landed safely. On this date, Smith filed another patent application for an improved parachute design, US Patent No. 1,462,456, which is known as the "Type A" model.
Instructions for US Patent 1,462,456 "Type A" parachute
Competition pushes parachutes to grow faster
Although Floyd and Irwin collaborated seamlessly on their first skydive, a resounding success, the two collaborators ended up in court over the invention.
Less than two months after his successful skydive, Irving formed the Irving Air Parachute Company with a silk manufacturer in New York, and the U.S. War Department quickly ordered 300 parachutes from Irving. Floyd Smith Aerospace sued Irving's company for patent infringement. Ultimately, the judge ruled that Floyd's patent was valid and that Owen's company was indeed infringing. But because it was purchased by the U.S. government, Freud received extremely low compensation. In order to compensate Floyd, the federal government then paid him $3,500 to purchase the right to manufacture the parachute, and Floyd subsequently transferred the patent to the Irving Aviation Parachute Company. Irving Aviation Parachute Company has since become one of the primary parachute suppliers to the U.S. military for many years.
But Freud did not stop the pace of research and development. He continued to innovate in the parachute field and rapidly expanded the parachute industry. In the mid-1920s, while working for the Switlik Parachute Company in Trenton, New Jersey, he went on to invent a new parachute line, U.S. Patent No. 1,755,414, which was easier to use and less expensive to produce. New parachute bag. The company marketed it as the "Floyd Smith Safety Pack."
In addition, Smith invented the "Floyd Smith Safety Seat" for Switlik (US Patent No. 1,779,338). A parachute is attached to the bottom of the safety seat, and the umbrella bag can be thrown out of the cabin through the bottom of the fuselage of the aircraft in an emergency.
In the drawing of US Patent No. 1,779,338, the seat is located above the latched door, and if the aircraft encounters an emergency, the umbrella bag can be thrown out of the cabin
lifetime achievement
When World War II began in 1938, Freud finally established his own company in Manchester, Connecticut - Pioneer Parachute Company (Pioneer Parachute Company), and personally served as the vice president and chief engineer. There, he never stopped innovating, more improvements were made to the parachute bag, and new types of parachutes emerged one after another. During this period, a large number of inventions and creations related to parachutes were applied for US patents. For example, US Patent Nos. 2,316,895, 2,262,119, and 2,316,896, among others.
Pioneer was one of the first parachute manufacturers in the world to use nylon instead of silk, and by 1942 it was the largest producer of nylon parachutes in the world. At the height of World War II, about 3,000 employees worked in shifts, producing 300 parachutes a day for the army. Many U.S. service members who jumped behind enemy lines on D-Day used Pioneer parachutes.
Floyd's son, Prevost Smith, started his own company, Smith Parachute, in San Diego in 1947 after working with his father for several years at Pioneer. After his father's death in 1956, he changed the company's name to Prevost F. Smith Parachute Company. Like his father, Prevost was a visionary in the parachute field. Among his many accomplishments, he is known for designing and manufacturing parachutes used by astronauts, air-dropped parachutes for military weapons and other equipment, and is a successful contractor for NASA, the Navy, the Air Force and several major defense agencies.
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