The Parachute Was Invented By Ancient Chinese – Not Leonardo Da Vinci

Question: Who invented the parachute?

Answer: Leonardo Da Vinci is often credited with the invention of the first parachute. However, although he was a brilliant scientist, he did not invent the parachute. The history of parachutes can be traced to ancient China.

In 90 B.C., according to the book Si Ji (Historical Records) written by a famous Chinese historian Si Ma Chian who lived during the Western Han dynasty, there was a legend which described how the emperor Shun nearly 2000 years before the Han Dynasty (4000 years past the present) use a sort of parachute to survive a fall.

According to the legend, Shun’s father Gu Sou intended to kill him by forcing him to get on top of a roof and then burning him to death. Fortunately Shun held two large bamboo hats to escape from the roof and land on the ground safely. This is the principal of using bamboo hats to increase air resistance to reduce the falling speed.

See also: Ancient Chinese Invented The Umbrella

Then, later on in 200 B.C., there were acrobats performing stunts of great falls using something similar to parachutes during their acrobatics in the palaces of the early Han Emperors. Hence the invention of the parachute was for performances to entertain one emperor in China or to escape from another (murderous) emperor.

There are also historical accounts from 1308 indicating that again the acrobatics of the parachute activities appeared in the palace of the Yuan Emperor. In 1650 the parachute was being used in Siam (modern Thailand).

An old parachute design appears in an anonymous manuscript from 1470s Renaissance Italy. A more sophisticated parachute was later sketched by the Leonardo da Vinci in his Codex Atlanticus dated to ca. 1485.

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