"Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in getting up every time we do"
Confucius, Chinese thinker and educator
The Wright brothers' historic flight of 1903 had made aeronautics a worldwide phenomenon. Air shows became increasingly popular spectacles throughout the world. A Russian artillery school graduate, Gleb Kotelnikov (1872-1944), was attending such a show in 1910 when he witnessed the death of a pilot. He was so affected by the accident that he vowed to create a safety device to help prevent such deaths.
The parachute is not a particularly new idea—there are many accounts of rudimentary parachutes being used throughout the ancient world. Early prototypes of a Kotelnikov parachute contained within the pilot's helmet failed, yet Kotelnikov was unperturbed and eventually devised a parachute within a knapsack that could be worn within the confines of a plane's cockpit.
Despite the dangers to their military pilots, many governments were reluctant to provide parachutes to their armed forces. However, in 1918 the German Army Air Service became the first to introduce the parachute as standard issue.
Nowadays, parachutes are so reliable that they are used not just to save lives but also for recreation and entertainment. Kotelnikov was honored in 1949 for his invention by having the town in Russia where he first tested his device renamed Kotelnikovo.
