Throughout history different people have tried to fly by jumping from heights. With some of these tries the person made it. With better communications the true nature of flight started to become clearer. With each experiment new things were learned.

Man jumping with wings

Many people have tried to fly by jumping from tall buildings or high mountaintops. The first man to "fly", the Chinese Emperor, Shin jumped from a tower using two large hats. He was very happy to land safely. Many, many years passed before the next recorded jump. A physician, Abbas ibn-Firmas tried to fly using wings. He covered himself with feathers, attached wings and flew for some distance. He tried to land like a bird and crashed to the ground, injuring his back. He attributed his failure to not having a tail.

For hundreds of years many other people tried flight by jumping. In 852 A.D. Armen Firman jumped from a tower in Spain wearing a huge cloak. He hoped the cloak would billow out and help him float to the ground gently. He was fortunate he made it. For many, many years after others tried to fly by jumping. Emperor Shin did not fly. He was the first parachutist. But, others learned from his jump. In 1797 a Frenchman, Andre-Jacques Garnerin went up in a hydrogen filled balloon to 650 feet. He then let himself go in a basket tied to a parachute made of white canvas. Finally, someone was able to jump, sail down and land safely on earth. This happened 4000 years after Emperor Shin's hat trick. Note the advancement from a feathered man jumping to the hydrogen filled balloon descent. With each experiment lessons were learned to build on the knowledge of flight and with improved communications, the ideas accelerated.

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Last modified: Sun Nov 9 15:40:33 PST 1997

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