Leslie Irvin (parachutist)
Leslie Leroy Irvin ( born September 10, 1895 in Los Angeles, California, † October 9, 1966 ), nicknamed "Sky High" Irvin, made the first free-fall parachute jump on 29 April 1919.
Irvin was born in Los Angeles. At 14, he jumped for the first time with a parachute. For the movie Sky High, he graduated in 1914 the first jump out of a plane from a height of 1000 feet. As a 23- year-old he came to the parachute rescue team of the Army Air Corps. In April 1919, he jumped from the McCook Air Field near Dayton, Ohio, from 1000 feet height with a shield on his back, he pulled his ripcord even after free fall. It was the first jump with a manually operated parachute. The jump was successful up to a hard landing: Irvin broke when returning to the ground on purpose. The designer of the parachute, which also controlled the aircraft, Floyd Smith. He had worked with Irvin in the circus together on a trapeze. Made was the parachute by Major EC Hoffman (U.S. Air Service Engineering Division ). Lesley Irvin could distribute his jump commercially: he established the Irvin parachute factory in Buffalo, New York, which quickly became the largest manufacturer in the world less than two months later. He developed in 1918 his own parachute and jumped even with him many times.
An early brochure of the Irvin Air Chute Company is one of William O'Connor on August 24, 1920 by McCook Field as the first person who was rescued from an Irvin parachute. Two years later, Irvin company wrote the award of a gold pin for pilots who had successfully jumped with Irvin screen from a crashing airplane (see Caterpillar Club ). During the 1930s his parachutes were at forty air forces. During the Second World War Irvin parachutes saved over 10,000 lives.
As aircraft pursued into higher altitudes, the pilots and flight crews were confronted with increasingly lower temperatures. Irvin developed and produced the classic aviator jacket made of sheepskin in order to meet their needs. Later the company also made car seat belts, lifting straps for load movements and even Eindosungsmaschinen ago. Today, the company is known as Airborne Systems and specializes in parachutes and inflatable life-saving equipment.