Bill Gargano
Aneheim Hills, CA
- Bill
- History of Parachutes
- Parachutes in the Military
- Parachutes in Popular Sport
Quick Facts and short histories
Bill Gargano
Bill started skydiving in 1970 when he was sixteen.
By 1973 he had completed rigging school and started working full time in the parachute industry. For the next ten years he worked for Parachutes Incorporated, Irvin Industries, Inc. as a draftsman, started his first business B. Gargano & Company in 1979 while he was still employed at Irvin Industries, Inc. He later accepted the position of Engineering Manager for G.Q. Security Parachutes, and eventually resigned in March of 1984 to start Quantum Parachutes with a partner.
Bill now has over 25 years of parachute design, testing and manufacturing experience in military and sport applications. His concentration is on project management of the research, development, and implementation of new parachute technologies.
He has developed five lines of sport ram air parachutes for Quantum Parachutes, Inc. and does limited test jumping. He also lectures on parachute use, design and performance to hang gliding, paragliding, powered paragliding and powered parachute groups three to six times a year.
He has completed the design, development and production start-up of:
1.) a military use, ram air parachute for Guardian Parachute, Santa Ana, California;
2.) a ram air parachute for the Bureau of Land Management Smokejumpers, Boise, Idaho; FS-14
3.) a series of paragliders for two California companies; Skywalk and Summit.
4.) a series of polyconical hang glider and paraglider recovery parachutes for High Energy Sports, Inc., Santa Ana, California; SkySeries, Advantage and Quantum.
5.) a polyconical ultra-light recovery parachute for Second Chantz, Reno, Nevada;
6.) Four series of powered ram air parachutes for Buckeye Powered Parachutes, Inc., Argos, Indiana.
7.) a gliding round Smokejumper parachute for the United States Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Missoula Technology and Development Center.
8.) the SF-10A gliding polyconical parachute for the U.S. Army, 10th Special Forces Group.
9.) A series of “shaped” ram-air powered parachutes for High Energy Sports, Inc.
He has also spent two years as an engineer for the main ram-air wing used on the International Space Station X-38 Crew Return Vehicle.
MILITARY:
October 1974 - March 1976
Air Force Parachute Rigger
Served on a SAC base packing landing brake parachutes for B-52’s and emergency parachutes for B-52's and KC-135's.
PATENTS:
GLIDING PARACHUTE
4,399,969
August 23, 1983
Assigned to: Edward Strong, Orlando, FL.
A gliding parachute of the flexible, multi-cell airfoil type. A special pilot chute and bridle assembly are provided so that upon deployment of the main chute the pilot chute will automatically collapse to substantially reduce its drag. Pilot chute design currently used by Bureau of Land Management for drogue deployment of ram air parachutes.
REMOVABLE SLIDER FOR PARACHUTE DEPLOYMENT
4,678,145
July 7, 1987
A slider which permits removal in flight by pulling downward on a pair of handle to release tear-a-way connectors.
PARACHUTE SUSPENSION LINE ATTACHMENT STRUCTURE
4,684,082
August 4, 1987
Line attachment reinforcement structures forming a Y, T or other configuration and terminating below the upper canopy to distribute the load from the suspension line without puckering or otherwise altering the preferred airfoil configuration of the upper and lower canopies.
RAM AIR PARACHUTE WITH MULTIPLE PRESSURE CENTERS
4,705,238
November 10, 1987
A combination of two and three chamber cells with suspension line dimensions and trim angles are used to impart multiple pressure centers and different arc anhedral shapes to improve various characteristics of the parachute including opening, stability and accuracy.
LICENSES:
Master Parachute Rigger, Licensed by FAA in 1976
Sr. Parachute Rigger, Licensed by FAA in 1973
Expert Parachutist, USPA license D-7570
Advanced Parachutist, USPA license C-10387
Parachutist, USPA license A-2883
ORGANIZATIONS:
United States Parachute Association (USPA)
United States Hang Gliding Association (USHG)
United States Ultralight Association
Aero Sports Connection
A Short History of Parachutes
Parachutes first appear in the 1470’s in Italy as a means for people to escape from burning buildings.
In the 1480’s Leonardo Da Vinci designed his more widely recognized conical design.
It was not until 1617 that the parachute first made it off the paper and into creation. Inventor Faust Vrancic of Croatia designed what he called Homo Volans, based on Da Vinci’s drawing, in 1595 and tested it some twenty years later by jumping off a tower in Venice.
The modern parachute was designed and tested in 1783 by Louis-Sebastien Lenormand in France. Two years later it was put to practical use as an escape from a hot air balloon.
Parachutes were originally made out of linen and wooden frames, but in the effort to make them more compact and transportable Jean Pierre Blanshard began to use silk and made the first foldable parachute in 1797. It was soon after that vents began to appear in parachute design to gain more stability.
Andrew Garnerin was the first person to jump with an unframed parachute in 1797 from a hot air balloon. His parachute was made of canvas.
In 1887 Captain Thomas Baldwin invented the first parachute harness.
In 1890 Paul Letteman invented the first backpack parachute. It included the first drogue parachute, a small parachute that was deployed to gain the force to pull out the main.
In 1911 Grant Morton and Captain Albert Berry both jumped from airplanes and both claimed to be the first.
Over time several types of parachutes have been developed. Quantum focuses mostly on Round and Ram-air.
Round parachutes are used for drag as they provide no lift and are most commonly used by the military as well as for cargo delivery and emergency situations.
Most modern parachutes are “ram-air" parachutes. These are self inflating airfoils known as a parafoil that provide control of speed and direction similar to paragliders that allow for more accuracy.
Parachutes are most commonly made today from nylon and other very strong and light modern materials
for more indepth histories check out Wikipedia About.com and Parachutehistory.com
History of Parachutes in the Military
The first military use of the parachute was used by artillery spotters on tethered observation balloons in World War I.
Thomas Orde-Lees patented the “British parachute” also known as the “Mad Major” that was successfully used off the tower bridge and eventually used by the Royal Flying Corps.
The Germans in 1918 were the first to standard issue parachutes to pilots, but they were poorly built and therefore fairly unsuccessful.
In 1919 Leslie Irvin invented the first successfully tested parachute deployed by pilots once clear of the aircraft and he became the first person to voluntarily enter free-fall by jumping from an aircraft
Italy was the first to experiment with using parachutes to drop soldiers behind enemy lines in 1927 and by 1941 airborne forces were commonly trained for surprise attacks.
Today parachutes are used in many aspects of the military. They are used by the special forces, they are part of all pilot ejection systems, they are used as supply delivery systems, they are used as recovery systems for military equipment as well as NASA equipment and escape vehicles and many more.
Also check out the military page at Parachutehistory.com
History of Parachutes in Sport
The first jump from a plane was in Venice Beach, CA in 1911 by Grant Morton, but Captain Albert Berry also claimed to be the first.
At this point the parachute had to be carried in jumpers lap and thrown out by hand upon exiting the plane.
The first free-fall jump was made by Georgia Broadwick in 1914, but Leslie Irvine was the first person to consciously choose to skydive.
It wasn’t until the 1960’s that parachute jumping really became a sport and parachutes were marketed for that purpose.
Most modern competitors use ram-air parachutes with spring loaded ripcord systems to deploy their parachutes
for more on modern competative skydiving and its history check out theskydivingplace