Top 10 Interesting Facts about Skydiving
Skydiving has quite a history behind it and it even dates back to 1485 when Leonardo Dа Vinci first sketched the blueprints for the first parachute. In 2000, Adrian Nicholas made an exact replica of the model sketched by Da Vinci more than five centuries ago as he jumped and landed successfully, without any problem. There are many other interesting facts about skydiving, and 10 of them are listed in this article.
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1
Airborne
The concept of airborne was started in 1918, when the US military’s 1st infantry was first dropped from a bomber onto Metz city. The idea was proposed by Lewis H. Brereton, who used to work under General Billy Mitchell.
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2
Highest jump
In 1960, Captain Kittinger recorded the highest jump ever in the history, when he jumped from a height of 102,800 feet. During the free fall, his speed was 715 mph and he opened his parachute when he was 18,000 feet off the ground.
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3
Parachutes as life savers
There came a time when the planes crashed and went down in deep water as the pilots opened their parachutes, which took them to the surface of the water, saving their lives.
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4
Lowest mass tactical jump
The lowest mass tactical jump was 143 feet, which itself is a world record. The attempt was made by 1st Battalion (ABN), 509th Infantry and they did this during the 1942 rehearsals.
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Lowest combat jump
In 1944, the lowest combat jump was attempted from 175 feet. However, due to an altimeter error, the jump did not succeed.
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6
Youngest skydiver
Toni Stadler, aged 4, became the youngest skydiver in the history after he tandem jumped at the Cape Parachute Club, 25 miles north of Cape Town, from a height of 10,000 feet.
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7
Oldest jumper
In a bid to prove that anyone can jump, Herb Tanner, at the age of 92, jumped from a height of 3,500 feet and became the oldest skydiver in history. The oldest tandem jumper was 100 years old.
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8
Group jump
In 2004, a total of 357 skydivers jumped over Takhli and joined their hands for 6 seconds to achieve a world record.
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9
Maximum jumps in one day
In 2001, Michael Zang completed 500 jumps in one day, which itself was a world record. As per the calculations, he required to make each jump within 3 minutes of his last jump.
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10
Jumps on annual basis
According to the estimates, around 2 million skydiving attempts are made each year and around 35 fatalities are recorded in the same duration.
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