DID YOU KNOW: Marblehead's ties to skydiving pioneers
One, Two, Three, Jump!
Just A few years after the Wright brothers invented the Airplane in 1903, Men and women around the United States were leaping from planes including one Massachusetts man who jumped from a plane into Marblehead Harbor using a parachute.
History of Skydiving
The idea of parachutes has been around a long time., starting with the Chinese 4,000 years ago to Leonardo Da Vinci in the 15th century.
U.S. Army Capt. Albert Berry is credited with making the first successful parachute jump from an airplane.
On March 1st, 1912, Berry jumped from a Benoist Pusher Biplane from 1,500 feet and landed successfully at Jefferson Barracks, Missouri. As the plane approached the drop zone, Berry climbed out of his seat, situated himself on a trapeze bar, and attached the parachute to the harness he was wearing and jumped.
Falling an estimated four hundred feet before the parachute deployed. A few minutes later, Berry made a successful landing before a cheering crowd!
Asked if he would ever do it again, He replied “Never Again!” Nine days later he jumped again.
Frederick Rodman Law and his visit to Marblehead
Frederick Rodman Law was born in Lynn, MA in 1885.
As a young man, he worked as a steeplejack, a person who climbs tall structures such as chimneys and steeplejacks in order to carry out repairs. In 1909, he climbed the flatiron building in New York City with his bare hands.
In February of 1912, Frederick successfully jumped from the torch of the Statue of Liberty wearing a parachute.
Frederick Law is credited with making the second successful parachute jump from an airplane on April 13, 1912, in Marblehead from a height of 1,200 feet.
Law borrowed a Burgess Hydro (pontoon) plane flown by pilot Philip Page. It was placed in the waters of Marblehead Harbor. Shortly after 4 p.m., it lifted off with Law and flew over Marblehead Harbor.
Law climbed out of the plane onto the pontoon and jumped. He landed safely in the water a few seconds later.
A.K.A. “The Rocket Man”
Law had quickly made a name for himself performing dangerous stunts. He scaled skyscrapers and even jumped off the Brooklyn Bridge using a parachute and landing in the East River.
In March of 1913, he climbed into the nose of a rocket loaded with nearly 1,000 pounds of gunpowder. The rocket was 45 feet tall ending in a conical steel cap with an opening for him to crawl into.
He planned to shoot himself 3,200 feet into the air and parachute to earth after climbing out of the cone of the rocket.
The rocket blew up on the launch pad and threw him thirty feet, burning him badly.
One would assume that someone living the life that he did, he would have been killed because of a dangerous stunt, interestingly, however, Law contracted tuberculosis in 1919 and died in a hospital bed at the age of 34.
First woman skydiver
The first parachute jump from an airplane performed by a woman was by Georgia “Tiny” Broadwick of North Carolina in 1913. She was nicknamed “tiny” because of her height. She was just four feet tall and weighed 80 pounds.
On June 21st, 1913, she and her pilot lifted off from Los Angeles and after reaching an altitude of 2,000 feet, she climbed out onto the wing and jumped. She safely landed near Griffith Park.
Later, she was the first woman to make a jump from a Hydro Airplane into a body of water.
In 1914, her reputation as a parachutist led to the U.S. Army contacting her. World War I was raging in Europe and many pilots were lost because they lacked training on how to safely bail out of an airplane if it was hit by enemy fire.
Tiny was asked to demonstrate jumping from an airplane, and she made four jumps. After three successful jumps, her fourth did not go so well.
Her parachute’s line became tangled in the airplane’s tail assembly and the strong winds prevented her from getting back in the airplane. But Tiny did not panic; instead, she had the idea to cut the line to a short length and free-fall toward the ground, then pulling the line by hand to open the parachute.
This was, in essence, the first planned free-fall descent, and the first demonstration of what would later be called the “ripcord.” She had proven that a pilot could return to the ground safely by bailing out of an airplane.
- Marblehead Messenger, April 13, 19
- Marblehead Messenger, April 19, 1912
- Bailing Out: Amazing dramas of military flying, Robert Jackson, Pen and Sword Books, South Yorkshire, U.K., 2006
- AirSpaceMag.com, Feb. 29th, 2012
- Asomf.org-Womens-history-the incrediblestoryofGeorgia-tiny-broadwick