Sébastien Lenormand’s First Parachuting Attempt

Illustration of a French card from 1890 showing Sébastien Lenormand leaping from a building with his parachute in Montpellier, France. The caption reads Sébastien Lenormand Fait la 1re Expérience du Parachute, which means Sébastien Lenormand’s First Parachuting Attempt.

Pictured above is a French illustration from 1890, showing Louis-Sébastien Lenormand leaping from a building with his parachute in Montpellier, France in 1783. He jumped from the Montpellier Observatory in front of a large crowd of onlookers who were hoping to witness the first-ever successful parachute demonstration. The caption reads Sébastien Lenormand Fait la 1re Expérience du Parachute, which means Sébastien Lenormand’s First Parachuting Attempt.

What’s interesting about the image is the umbrella-like parachute shown. It looks to be roughly five feet in diameter. In reality, Lenormand jumped with a prototype that was fourteen feet in diameter with a rigid wooden frame. He did perform earlier tests with more umbrella-like designs, which could explain the mis-match, but it seems like a pretty significant detail to overlook.

Check out the full history of early parachute designs here.