Much before the invention of the aero plane, people tried to jump from great height with the help of things which were similar to today’s parachutes.
The first living thing to fall from a big height to land safely on earth was a sheep. The animal, attached to a seven feet wide umbrella, was dropped from a tower in France late in the 18th century.
The first man to use a parachute was a Frenchman named Andre Gernerin. In 1797 he climbed into a basket attached to a hot air balloon and rose into the air above Paris. When he reached an altitude of 2,230 feet, he jumped and fell with the help of an umbrella-like parachute (23 feet wide).This was a very brave deed because no one had tried this before and no one knew if it would work. But Gernerin landed safe and his experiment was successful.