Albert Berry (parachutist)

Albert Berry jumped on 1 March 1912 as the first man off with a parachute from an airplane. He was the son of the balloon driver John Berry and Captain in the U.S. Army.

Prehistory

The aviation pioneer Thomas Wesley Benoist and his chief pilot Tony Jannus had developed a new type of parachute beginning of 1912. The parachute was mounted in a metal container under the fuselage. The parachutists sat during the flight on a kind of trapeze. For the new parachute Benoist and Jannus received U.S. Patent # 1,053,182.

Benoist had designed together with the aviation pioneer Hugh A. Robinson a new biplane with a pusher propeller. Under this double-decker trapeze for Albert Berry was attached.

The take-off

The first take-off attempt failed due to poor weather conditions. On March 1, 1912 at 14:30 clock Tony Jannus finally lifted off with Berry from Kinloch Field in St. Louis. The Benoist biplane flew about 28 miles to the Jefferson Barracks, an army barracks in the south of St. Louis, where the take-off should take place.

The jump took place at an altitude of around 450 meters at 90 km / h. Berry tied firmly to the parachute and then loosened his backups on the trapeze. His weight pulled the parachute out of the metal container. Berry crashed around 150 meters in depth, until the parachute opened. The parachute had a diameter of around 11 meters and was made of unbleached cotton. Berry thought his jump would affect the stability of the machine, but Jannus could not notice any changes.

As Benoist Jefferson Barracks reached where all were waiting for the plane, he went into the building to Colonel Wood. When they both came out, they confirmed the soldiers that Berry had landed. When Berry was asked if he would repeat the jump, he just said " never again".

Other sources claim Grant Morton was in 1911 jumped from an airplane.