Ex-Trapeze Artist Made Parachute Safer
#2 in a series of videos presented by the Aviation Trail Parachute Museum
presented by Smithsonian Channel
Toward the end of WWI, it became clear to the U.S. government that pilots needed parachutes to better save their lives. So, they set up a crack team to come up with a practical and workable design.
"Ex-Trapeze Artist Made Parachutes Safer", Smithsonian Channel
The story highlights the Army Air Service's parachute research team at Dayton's McCook Field where engineer James Floyd Smith and ex-stuntman Leslie Irvin helped develop the modern parachute in 1919.
See the Parachute Museum page for access to more Parachute Museum Theater videos.