Flying Like a Bird

The first parachutists usually fell “like a sack being hurled out of a window,” in the words of Leo Valentin, a parachute jumper. (Valentin wore suits with batlike wings in an attempt to imitate bird flight. Wing suits often broke in midair, and Valentin was killed in an accident in 1956.) Parachutists soon found, howev­er, that by adopting a box position as they fell-stomach-down, with arms and legs bent slightly backward-they could soar like a bird rather than drop like a sack until their parachute opened.

Modern skydivers are taught to fall in the box position, although experi­enced divers also adopt other positions. The spread-eagle body acts like a wing, so a skydiver can fly around, and teams can formate (group together). Groups of as many as 282 divers have achieved formation in free fall.

An amazing demonstration of free fall maneuvering took place in 1987, in the sky above Arizona, when skydiver Gregory Robertson saved the life of fel­low parachutist Debbie Williams. She was knocked unconscious after colliding with another jumper, and she fell for

6,0 feet (1,830 meters). Robertson dived alongside her and opened her parachute at 3,500 feet (1,070 meters) above the ground. Only then did he open his own parachute.