Skydiving

Parachuting, or skydiving, is a method of transiting from a high point to Earth with the aid of gravity, involving the control of speed during the descent with the use of a parachute. It may involve more or less free-fall, a time during which the parachute has not been deployed and the body gradually accelerates to terminal velocity.

Andre-Jacques Garnerin was the first to make successful descents using a canvas canopy from a small basket tethered beneath a hot-air balloon. The first intentional freefall jump with a ripcord-operated deployment is credited to Leslie Irvin in 1919. Georgia Broadwick made an earlier freefall in 1914 using improvised equipment when her static line became entangled with the aircraft's tail assembly and she cut the static line and pulled it herself.

The military developed parachuting technology as a way to save aircrews from emergencies aboard balloons and aircraft in flight, and later as a way of delivering soldiers to the battlefield. Early competitions date back to the 1930s, and it became an international sport in 1952.