Para, Para in the sky......

[sportbilly42]

For all the ‘wanting to be Parachute Regiment’ talk, spare a thought for those brave men whose ideas went into developing the parachute as we know today..... Men like Franz Reichelt.

Yes, parachutes may have been around since the 1500s in various guises, but Franz tried to take the basic design one stage further by developing the ‘para-suit’.

Known as the flying tailor, he designed an overcoat to fly or float its wearer gently to the ground like the modern parachute and to demonstrate his invention he made a jump of 60 meters from the first deck of the Eiffel Tower, at that time the tallest man-made structure in the world. Click on link to confirm his success ..........(or otherwise)

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=BepyTSzueno

In the sound version you can hear the cameraman shouting “Jump you cnut!!! I’m running out of film!!!”

Things have moved on a tad as far as parachutes are concerned (thank fek!). But where would we be if it wasn’t for the Franz Reichelt’s of this world? At least we knew “that didn’t work...”

Early form of base-jumping or early form of Jackass TV..... Take your pick

I salute him..... (twat....)

[Scouse_liam]

He just smacks the ground hahaha

[Greenronnie]

Funnily enough, I'm now employed to test and evaluate parachutes and associated systems. Sounds mega dodgy, but it's buckshee really! Nutters like that guy ironed out all the main problems a long time ago!