Everything you ever wanted to know about
|
|
||||||
- article
- discussion
Timeline
BASE Jumping Historical Time line: This time line is aimed to keep track of important historical events that directly, or indirectly contributed to BASE jumping. Being a history BUFF myself, I feel history is very important, and helps to understand where everything came from.
[top]15th centuryIn the 15th century, we find the famous genius of all times, Leonardo Da Vinci, painter, sculptor, mathematician, scientist, engineer, designer and builder of many devices. He studied birds and flight for several years and got basic conclusions in aeronautics. The parachute he designed was pyramidal-shaped, as can be appreciated in drawings included in his notebooks. His original idea was to build a device to rescue people from burning buildings. Although we don’t know if he tried this parachute, many people consider Leonardo Da Vinci the “Father of the Parachute”.
Through ensuing centuries, as parachutes did come into existence, and da Vinci's minimal effort was reviewed, he came to be credited with being "the father of the parachute." It was not until long past his death that the term "parachute" was coined. [Five hundred years later, in the year 2000, the British skydiver Adrian Nicholas resolved to put da Vinci's idea to the test. Nicholas and the da Vinci parachute successfully flew on July 25, 2000.] [top]1616In 1616 we find a Croatian man, born as Faust VRANCIC in Sibenik, also known as Fauste De Veranzio, who published a book called “Machinae Nova”, in which appeared a diagram titled “Homo Volans”, showing a man jumping from a tower, with a square canvas parachute, attached to the jumper’s harness with four lines, as can be seen in this picture. This drawing is very similar to the parachutes actually used for sport parachuting.
[top]1617Fauste Veranzio constructed a device similar to da Vinci's drawing and jumped from a tower in Venice in 1617.
[top]1779In 1779, Louis-Sébastien Lenormand, a french physicist, studied about parachutes throwing animals. Due to his many studies, we can consider him the first systematic parachute constructor.
[top]1783In 1783, Louis-Sébastien Lenormand, made the first parachute jump from the tower of the Montpellier observatory using a fourteen-foot-diameter canopy in an effort to develop a way to escape buildings on fire. Preceding the jump from a balloon by André-Jacques Garnerin.
The de Montgolfier brothers, Joseph and Étienne, tested a variety of parachute designs. It is said that in one of their experiments they dropped sheep on a seven-foot canopy without injury to the befuddled animal. [top]1785It was in 1785 that JEAN PIERRE BLANCHARD, a french balloonist, designed and built the first silk canopy parachute, which could be packed. Before that, parachutes were built with a rigid framework. In 1793, he did an emergency jump from a balloon and broke his legs.
[top]October 1797 In October 1797, Jacques-André Garnerin was credited with being the first genuine parachutist by jumping with a parachute without a rigid frame from a hydrogen balloon over London, England. One of Garnerin's balloon jumps from 8000 feet, a very high altitude for the time, was observed by a French astronomer, Lalandes. As the parachute descended, severe oscillations were induced in the canopy. Lalandes suggested cutting a small hole near the apex of the canopy to inhibit the oscillations. This modification is now known as the vent and does indeed dramatically reduce canopy oscillations.
[top]1802 Garnerin actually crossed the English Channel in 1802 in a balloon and landed in England by parachute.
[top]1837Over ensuing years, others in France, Poland, and England valorously tested their ideas- and progress was made, often at a dear cost. But the price was considered worthwhile to each of the experimenters and they continued work. Robert Cocking distinguished himself by becoming parachuting's first fatality when he fell to his death in 1837. Cocking jumped an inverted coneshaped parachute (point down) from 5000 ft.
[top]1906A British expatriate named Bobby Leach jumped from the Rainbow Bridge between Niagara Falls, Ontario and Niagara Falls, New York with a parachute in 1906, landing in the Niagara River. At that time the bridge was only about half the distance from the falls that it is now (original bridge was destroyed by ice in the ‘30′s). Leach was a daredevil, twice swimming across the Whirlpool rapids as a stunt. He later jumped from a plane over Canada but was blown back and landed in New York.
[top]February 2, 1912At 2:45 p.m. on February 2, 1912, steeplejack Frederick R. Law successfully performed a parachute jump from the observation platform surrounding the torch. It was done with the permission of the army captain administering the island. The New York Times reported that he "fell fully seventy-five feet [23 m] like a dead weight, the parachute showing no inclination whatsoever to open at first", but he then descended "gracefully", landed hard, and limped away. A photo of the jump appeared in one of Phil Smith’s Baseline mags.
[top]February 4, 1912Reichelt, known as the flying tailor, designed an overcoat to fly or float its wearer gently to the ground like the modern parachute. 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. The parachute failed and Reichelt fell to his death. The jump was recorded by the cameras of the gathered press.
[top]1913a Russian student Vladimir Ossovski (Владимир Оссовский), from the Saint-Petersburg Conservatory, jumped from the 53-meter high bridge over the river Seine in Rouen (France), using the parachute RK-1, invented a year before that by Gleb Kotelnikov (1872-1944). Ossovski planned jumping from the Eiffel Tower too, but the mayor of Paris didn’t allow that. (Information from the Russian edition of GEO (magazine) magazine, issue 11, November 2006, [http://www.geo.ru GEO]).
[top]1914Stefan Banic, a Slovak inventor, constructed and tested a prototype of a parachute in Washington, D.C. by jumping from a 41-floor building and subsequently from an airplane to the United States Patent Office and United States military. His patented parachute became standard equipment for U.S. pilots during World War I. Banič donated U.S.
(No. 1,108,484) to the U.S. Army. He received little fame or fortune for his invention. [top]November 11, 1917Major Orde-Lees and Lieutenant A. E. Bowen made jumps from Tower Bridge on sunday, November 11, 1917 with Calthrop’s ‘Guardian Angel’ s 150′ into the Thames to attempt to convince the Air Admiralty to buy parachutes for their pilots.
[top]1920′s & 1930′sIn the 20′s and 30′s John Tranum did a jump from 154′ Pasadena Bridge in California and rode a motorcycle off a 1000′ cliff, parachuting down safely.
[top]1966Bryan Schubert and Mike Pelkey parachute from El Capitan, in California’s Yosemite National Park. They use unmodified skydiving gear with round parachutes, and both sustain injuries from landing in wind. Read ElCap 1966
[top]September 7, 1970Don Boyles first to BASE jump the Royal Gorge Bridge.
At Bridge Day 1982, Don gave me (R.H) a picture of him on the bridge in 1970 and has the date written on the back of the photo. He used a 28' sleeved round and a 4 pin military harness. [top]November 9, 1973Rick Sylvester skied off the top of El Capitan and descended 3000' by parachute. This was conceived as "the world's greatest ski jump". Already an expert skier, he spent 3 weeks learning sky diving to make this jump. He has since retired from stunt work.
[top]July 22, 1975with his friend Mike Sergio, Owen J. Quinn disguised himself as a construction worker and hid his parachute in a duffel bag (covered with tools) and made his way up the North Tower to publicize the plight of the unemployed. They were met by a security guard, and while Sergio distracted him, Quinn continued toward the roof and got into his parachute.
[top]November 9, 1975The first person to parachute off the CN Tower in Toronto, Canada, was Bill Eustace, a member of the tower's construction crew. He was fired.
[top]July, 1976Rick Sylvester skied off Canada's Mount Asgard for the opening sequence of the James Bond movie "The Spy Who Loved Me (film)", giving the wider world its first look at BASE jumping.
[top]August 8, 1978It took three more years for Carl to put together the first trips to the Valley with the purpose of foot launching parachute jumps from El Cap. The new team consisted of Kent Lane, Mike Sherrin and Ken Gosselin, and that's the order they jumped in.
The date is August 8, 1978 and this is the actual birth date of "modern" BASE jumping. (Why we don't celebrate that day every year is beyond me)! [top]Summer 1978 Two week trial legal BASE Jumping period on El Capitan in Yosemite National Park in California.
[top]August 1, 1979The first jumper off the New River Gorge Bridge was Burton Ervin.
Burton's jump numbers were only in the high 30s when he decided to attempt a jump off the bridge. Burton jumped a conventional North American Aerodynamics Mini Rig System with a 32 foot Lopo canopy. http://www.mywvhome.com/bridge/ [top]November 8, 1980First Bridge Day BASE Jumps made in West Virginia by Dennis Wood, Miguel Fernandez, Ken Hamilton, Andy Macintyre, and Bob Wolf are the first five jumpers to legally jump the bridge on Saturday, November 8, 1980.
[top]1981BASE Magazine, Published by Carl Boenish, BASE #4 Six issues were published all in the same year. This was the very first BASE magazine. The early issues covered cliff jumping mostly, the later ones covered all the BASEs and was instrumental in helping launch Carl’s BASE numbering system we still use today.
[top]January 18, 1981[top]April 11, 1981[top]June 7, 1984Carl Boenish, “Father” of BASE jumping, is killed on the Troll Wall, Norway. This was the 7th BASE Fatality. [1]
[top]1986 - 1988BASELINE Magazine, Published by Phil Smith, BASE #1, The longest running of them all, this was probably the best known BASE magazine as well. In the last year or two, Andy Calistrate joined to help Phil. The early issues were informative and useful. The later issues weren't as helpful, but the were fun to read in a weird sort of way. Andy later steered the magazine toward the darker side of BASE jumping.
[top]July 25, 1986The Troll Wall has also gained notoriety as a favorite haunt of BASE jumpers. It was one of the sites where BASE jumping was pioneered in the eighties, until Norwegian authorities made BASE jumping from the Troll Wall illegal on July 25th, 1986.
[top]Summer 1986As detailed in
BASELine Vol1 Issue 1 Summer 1986 Page 3 and 4The line release mod was first envisioned. [top]1987JUMP Magazine, Published by Nigel Slee, BASE #? (see note below) This magazine was published in England. At the time the British Parachute Association is still banning folks for life when they are caught BASE jumping. Photos in the magazine sometimes sported blackouts over the jumpers eyes and faces just like something out of 1920s porno books.
[top]1989 - 1994The FIXED OBJECT JOURNAL, Published by Nick Di Giovanni, BASE #194. This was around longer than most but didn't produce as many issues as some of the others, about 8 in all.
[top]January 18, 1991[top]Auguest 26, 1992On 26 August 1992, Australians Nic Feteris and Glenn Singleman climbed Great Trango and then BASE jumped from an elevation of 5,955 meters (19,537 ft) on the Northwest Face, landing on the northern side of the Dunge Glacier at an altitude of 4,200 meters (13,779 ft). This was the highest starting elevation for a BASE jump on record to date.
[top]November 1, 1994[top]1997[top]September, 1997[top]October 9, 1999Dennis McGlynn begins 3 month jail term after being convicted of a class B misdemeanor for BASE Jumping in Lake Powell Recreational Area.
[top]July, 1999[top]October 22, 1999Yosemite National Park Protest held to end NPS discrimination.
[top]February, 2001[top]2003Old Span World Record (Broken by 21-way) 19 people exit together from the Perrine Bridge, Twin Falls, Idaho, USA. [2]
[top]2003Old Building World Record (Broken by 30-way) 26 people exit together from the Ostankino Tower, Moscow, Russia. [2]
[top]2004Building World Record (Overall World Record) 30 people exit together from the Ostankino Tower, Moscow, Russia. [2]
[top]March, 2005[top]September, 2005[top]May 23, 2006The current Guinness World Record for a BASE jump starting elevation is held by Singleman himself and partner Heather Swan for a jump from 6604 meters (21,667ft) from Meru Peak in northern India on 23 May 2006. [2]
[top]June 18, 2006[top]2008First base-jumping championship in Spain from the Gran Hotel Bali. More than 30 jumpers from all over the world. Maximum winner Klaus Renz.
[top]January, 2009[top]April 18, 2009Kurt Meyer jumped from the bridge called "El Incienso", becoming the first person to make base jump in Guatemala. BLiNC Magazine strongly encourages readers to comment on its content. Read the Disclaimer and the policy on Site Naming. Posting a comment releases it in the Public Domain. These comments will be moderated. If you see inappropriate content, please notify the administrator All rights reserved. No republication of this material, in any form or medium, is permitted without express permission of the author. All images and words are protected by U.S. and International Copyright laws. Copyright 1994-2010 Category: General
|
Patent
| Bookmarks |
| Tags |
| base jumping, bfl, bridge, bridge day, cliff, fatality, history, injuries, line release mod, movie, perrine bridge, rescue, skydiving, span, tower, yosemite |
| Wiki Links | Article Tools |
| Search this Article |
Posting Rules
|
All times are GMT -7. The time now is 03:32 AM.