Invention of the backpack parachute in 1910 Invention of the parachute

Gleb Evgenievich Kotelnikov (1872-1944)

inventor, creator of aviation backpack parachute

Gleb Evgenievich Kotelnikov was born on January 30, 1872, in St. Petersburg. His father studied mechanics and mathematics, his mother was a creative person, so from childhood Gleb sang, played the violin, and he also liked to make various toys and models.

When the future inventor was thirteen years old, he made a camera. I bought a used lens from a junk dealer and made the rest (the camera body, bellows) with my own hands. He also made photographic plates using the “wet” method that was then used.

Gleb Evgenievich graduated from Kiev military school, served as an excise official in the province, helped organize drama clubs, sometimes played in plays, and continued to design. When he returned to St. Petersburg, he became an actor in the People's House troupe.

The idea of ​​​​creating a parachute came to the inventor when he saw the death of a pilot at the Commandant airfield. “The death of the young pilot,” Kotelnikov recalled, “shocked me so much that I decided, at all costs, to build a device that would protect the pilot’s life from mortal danger…I turned my small room into a workshop and worked for over a year on inventing a new parachute.”
Kotelnikov was convinced that the parachute should be on the pilot during the flight and always be ready for trouble-free operation. The RK-1 parachute (Russian, Kotelnikova, model one) was developed within 10 months, in 1911 he registered his invention - a free-action backpack parachute,

And in 1912 he successfully carried out a demonstration test.

It was a lightweight round parachute that fit into a metal backpack, opened using a pull ring and operated flawlessly. Kotelnikov's merit is that he was the first to divide the lines into two shoulders, which allowed the parachutist to maneuver. The parachute design he proposed is still in use today.

Subsequently, Kotelnikov significantly improved the design of the parachute, creating new models that were adopted by the Air Force.
In 1923, he released the semi-rigid backpack parachute “RK-2”, and later the “RK-3” model with a soft backpack appeared. Kotelnikov was the first to develop a parachute that could lower cargo to the ground, a collective parachute to rescue passengers in the event of civil aircraft accidents.

He didn’t leave a noticeable mark, although he certainly gravitated toward the “sublime.” 100 years ago he invented the parachute. Being a creative and subtle person, Kotelnikov witnessed a plane crash, and it shocked him so much that he decided to bring humanity down from heaven to earth.

“There are crowds of idlers hanging out in the sky, what have you done, Comrade Kotelnikov?” This parachute proverb perhaps best and most briefly describes the centuries-old evolution of the parachute from an exotic means of survival to a sport and hobby.

100 years ago, not only parachutes, but airplanes were a curiosity - they flew mostly in balloons. Crowds of spectators gathered to test the first aircraft. Among them was Gleb Kotelnikov. There is even a photograph still preserved that captures the tragic moment: the aircraft turned over in the air and the pilot fell out of it. “Kotelnikov was an eyewitness to this disaster,” says aviation historian Georgy Chernenko, “and it made such an impression on him that he decided to come up with some means of saving the aviators.”

Kotelnikov was not a designer - he was an actor. But he took on the new business with ardor. Rescue domes had already been used by balloonists; they had to be made into an emergency response tool that would always be at hand. Kotelnikov solved this problem with the help of springs located at the bottom of a metal box, which was attached behind the parachutist’s shoulders. IN right moment the man pulled the ring, the lid of the box opened, and powerful springs threw the dome out.

RK-2 is a slightly modernized version of the first parachute by the author. There were few people willing to test the dubious devices of the self-taught engineer, or rather, only one. The volunteer's name was Ivan Ivanovich, and he was a dummy made by the designer himself. However, at that time no one even realized that a parachute could be controlled. “The parachutist was secured at one point. He hangs in this position like a puppy,” explains Stepan Tatenia, director of the Airborne Forces Museum. “And Kotelnikov divided these lines into 2 halves and attached them to the shoulders. And this idea is still used,” adds aviation historian Georgy Chernenko.

Kotelnikov's parachute could be maneuvered, which means it could be successfully used for landing troops. This sealed his fate. 20-30s - the time of the first heyday parachuting. On the eve of World War II in the Soviet Union, there were already parachute schools throughout the country.

Kotelnikov tried to improve his parachute, but without professional knowledge it was difficult: by that time, the best engineers and design bureaus were already working on refining his invention. The authorities, however, awarded him the “Constructor” badge, and a little later - the Order of the Red Star, but, by and large, the former actor, whose invention is still used by the whole world, found himself out of work.

The parachute system quickly became a very complex device. “A parachute consists of not one, not ten, but a thousand parts. Each unit is assembled from certain parts. Therefore, each ribbon, each part has its own pattern,” says Vladimir Malyaev, leading designer of the parachute plant.

Diversity and accessibility have given rise to such a trend as parachuting. Enthusiasts perform the most incredible pirouettes in the air, engage in aerial acrobatics and assemble figures in free flight - so-called formations of up to 400 people.

The latest word in the development of parachuting is jumping without a parachute in a webbed suit, which allows you to experience the feeling of free flight, simply gliding, gliding through the air. However, it is not yet possible to get rid of the canopy completely - it is needed during landing. But, according to the athletes, the day is not far off when a person will be able to step overboard an airplane without the usual backpack on his back.

And here in the magazine look with 6:55 minutes about the invention of the backpack parachute by Kotelnikov
Newsreel “I want to know everything” - No. 49

100 years ago, St. Petersburg actor Gleb Kotelnikov patented the world's first backpack parachute. This invention was inspired by... his wife Yulia Vasilyevna

Aeronautics Festival

The beginning of the twentieth century was a time of powerful development of aviation. In 1910, the speed limit of 100 kilometers per hour was overcome. The world altitude record reached 2780 meters, and the duration of the continuous flight exceeded 8 hours. But these achievements cost human lives. The first victim of motor aviation was the American Lieutenant Thomas Selfridge, who crashed in September 1908. And in 1911, 82 pilots had already died in the world. There were no aviation parachutes at that time...

In the summer of 1910, the Imperial All-Russian Aero Club decided to organize air competitions in which famous Russian aviators took part. The venue for this first “air show” in Russia was chosen as Commandants Field, a vast area in the northern part of St. Petersburg. Part of it was allocated for an airfield; hangars, stands for spectators, and service buildings quickly grew nearby.

The competition received a wonderful name - “All-Russian Aeronautics Festival”. It opened on September 21 and lasted over two weeks. Among the participants were such celebrities as Mikhail Efimov and Sergei Utochkin. Aerobatics of those years were demonstrated almost every day.

“For the first time we saw what Russian AVIATION had achieved, for the first time we were convinced that among Russian officers there were pilots who were not inferior in courage and skill to the French,” wrote the newspaper “Novoye Vremya”.

The aeronautics festival was coming to an end when a tragedy occurred on the Commandant's Field. Captain Lev Matsievich took off in his Farman. Only five minutes had passed since take-off; the airplane was at an altitude of 400 meters. But suddenly the spectators froze - the car seemed to split in half. The black figure of the pilot separated from her and quickly rushed down...

“There are no words to express the horror that gripped us all,” the reporter wrote. “We stood in a kind of stupor and carefully looked at how human body, spinning in the air, fell to the ground. Then everyone rushed to run to the scene of the disaster and out of the field. They fled because it was impossible to stand any longer - their hearts would not have been able to bear it and would have burst.”

This picture was also observed by Gleb Kotelnikov, who came to the airfield with his wife. Gleb was a graduate of the Kyiv Military School, but chose the profession of an actor and served in the theater " People's House"When they returned home, the shocked wife asked: “Is it really impossible to come up with a parachute that would fall with the pilot and open at his request?” The words sank into Kotelnikov’s soul - he sat down to read books about aeronautics.

Anti-fall

Leonardo da Vinci first came up with the idea of ​​creating a parachute. In his manuscript, dating from 1495, there is a drawing with the caption: “If a man has a tent of starched linen 12 cubits wide and 12 cubits high, then he can throw himself from any height without danger to himself.” Considering that the medieval measure of length - the cubit - was equal to various countries from 50 to 60 centimeters, then such a device really ensured the safe descent of a person from any height. After all, the diameter of modern parachutes also does not exceed 6-7 meters.

The idea of ​​a parachute did not appear by chance. One day, the French king Louis XII undertook a campaign to conquer the Duchy of Milan. Having won victories in a number of battles, he besieged Milan. Famine began in the city, but the Milanese did not think of giving up: they knew that Leonardo da Vinci was next to them, and he was not only a wonderful artist, but also a great scientist - he would come up with something. And he came up with an idea. Soon the Duke of Milan received a letter from Leonardo:

"I can cast cannons that are very light and easily portable. I can make multi-barreled guns that will sweep away everything in their path. In addition, I am enclosing drawings aircraft, which he called a “helicopter,” and an artificial wing, on the basis of which another aircraft, called a “bird flyer,” can be made.

The Duke immediately ordered Leonardo to be called. They decided to start not with guns, but with a “bird flyer”. In the midst of work, doubts arose. French muskets fire at two hundred and fifty meters, which means that it costs them nothing to shoot down a “bird flyer” flying at an altitude of one hundred meters. Leonardo locked himself in his workshop for three days. And on the fourth he brought the Duke a drawing and description of the parachute. But he did not have time to make it: on the same day the French launched a decisive assault - and Milan fell.

For many years this development was forgotten. Only in 1617, the Venetian mechanical engineer Veranzio found the drawings of Leonardo da Vinci, made a canvas tent and made the world's first jump from a roof. high tower. But this was an isolated incident. Only after balloons began to rise into the sky, and balloonists began to die as a result of disasters, did they remember Leonardo da Vinci and his follower Veranzio. In 1783, the French physicist Lenormand created an apparatus for rescuing balloonists, for which he came up with the name “parachute,” which translated from Greek means “against falling.” He even tested it, making a successful descent from the observatory tower.

By 1910, the works of such famous parachute designers as Bonnet, Ors, Robber, as well as Russian inventors Pomortsev and Yange had already been published. Kotelnikov studied all these works. The main conclusion he made was this: their parachutes are too bulky, unreliable and, which is really bad, are placed separately from the pilot in a special container, but the pilot can only be saved by a parachute that he can put on himself.

Silk shawl. Moment of truth

It must be said that Kotelnikov was not an engineer, but he inherited several talents from his parents. His father was a professor of mechanics and higher mathematics Forestry Institute, and my mother studied painting, played the piano, and took part in amateur performances. Since childhood, he became addicted to plumbing and carpentry. He made intricate toys and built models of various machines. At the same time, he sang in the philharmonic choir, played the violin, and composed music.

Gleb's father died early, and he had to enter the Kiev Artillery School. He served only briefly in the army and retired to the reserve. In 1910, Kotelnikov came to St. Petersburg to become a professional artist. He was enrolled in the troupe of the People's House. But the main work of his life was working on a backpack parachute. “I turned my room into a workshop and worked on my invention for more than a year,” Gleb recalled.

The idea was good, but how to implement it? The problem was that the parachute canopy at that time was made of dense and heavy rubberized fabric, which was simply impossible to put in a backpack. Case helped Kotelnikov. Once in the theater, he saw a certain lady, taking a silk shawl out of her purse, awkwardly wave it, and the shawl inflated into a bubble.

This is what we need, Kotelnikov decided instantly. He realized that silk is best material for a parachute canopy. What happened next was a matter of technique. On November 9, 1911, Gleb Kotelnikov patented his invention and received a certificate for a “rescue backpack for aviators with an automatically ejected parachute.” He called it "RK-1", that is, "Russian, Kotelnikov - the first."

The perfect parachute

The merit of the Russian inventor was also that he was the first to divide the slings into two shoulders. Now the parachutist did not hang like a doll, suspended at one point, but could, holding the lines, maneuver, taking the most convenient position for landing. The canopy fit into a backpack, and a parachutist, using a simple device, could pull it out in the air at any distance from a falling or burning aircraft. Schematic diagram RK-1 formed the basis of all modern aviation parachutes.

It would seem that we must immediately begin mass production of Kotelnikov parachutes, but War Department had its own point of view and did not accept the parachute for production, as it was written in the document, “as unnecessary.”

But Kotelnikov did not give up. Having met the businessman Lomach, who sold aviation equipment, Gleb Evgenievich suggested that he set up the production of parachutes. After thinking, he agreed, but insisted on conducting comprehensive tests.

First, an 80-kilogram dummy was dropped from a balloon - it landed without damage, then from an airplane - the same thing. After one of the successful descents of the dummy, the future famous Russian pilot, then still a cadet at the Gatchina school, Pyotr Nesterov said to Kotelnikov: “Your invention is amazing! Allow me, I will immediately repeat the jump.” But the school authorities found out about the upcoming experiment, and instead of testing the parachute, Nesterov ended up... in the guardhouse.

Who will receive the main prize?

In the fall of 1912, France decided to hold a competition for the best parachute design. Kotelnikov was planning to go, but he did not have a replacement at the theater. Then his sponsor Lomach, taking with him two parachutes, persuaded a brave guy, a student at the Osovsky Conservatory, to go with him to Paris. It was he who became the first person in the world to jump with a backpack parachute. It was a sensation that was not expected from the Russians. World-famous parachute designers lived in France at that time. Therefore, the main prize was given to the Frenchman Frederic Bonnet for a less advanced design. His parachute was stowed on the fuselage of the aircraft behind the pilot's cabin. Jumps were carried out with it in the future, but it was never used in aviation. Meanwhile, having bought both parachutes from Lomach, the French did not bother with patent rights, but immediately launched their production, passing them off as their own development.

Simplicity, reliability and talent

In 1913, 24-year-old aircraft designer Igor Sikorsky tested his heavy four-engine aircraft, which later received the name Ilya Muromets. A year later, the Russian “Squadron of Aircraft” was created from such machines. This was the first formation of strategic bombers in world history. It was then that they remembered Kotelnikov’s backpack parachute. It was decided to supply them to the crews of giant aircraft...

In 1923, Gleb Evgenievich created new model a backpack parachute - RK-2, and then a model of the RK-3 parachute with a soft backpack. In 1924, he manufactured the RK-4 cargo parachute with a canopy with a diameter of 12 meters. This parachute could lower a load weighing up to 300 kilograms. In 1926, Kotelnikov transferred all his inventions to the Soviet government. But new government for unknown reasons, she preferred to purchase American Irwins and French Juquemesses.

The Great Patriotic War found Kotelnikov in Leningrad. Having survived the blockade, he left for Moscow. Died in 1944. On Novodevichy Cemetery A monument by sculptor Grigory Postnikov was erected on his grave. On the marble plaque there is an inscription: “Founder of aviation parachuting, Gleb Evgenievich Kotelnikov.” Life has put everything in its place.

Nowadays, the parachute has become an integral part of technology: paratroopers descend from the sky with it, powerful domes carefully deliver guns and tanks to the designated point... Special parachutes reduce speed spaceships when landing on the ground. The Russian Parachute Research Institute has created almost five thousand different modifications. The principles of Kotelnikov’s invention are still relevant today. This is simplicity and reliability. Gleb Kotelnikov believed in great power art and was good actor. But my own main role he played in the history of world aviation.

The archive preserved a memorandum from reserve lieutenant Gleb Kotelnikov to Minister of War V.A. Sukhomlinov, in which the inventor asked for a subsidy for the construction of a prototype backpack parachute and reported that “on August 4 this year in Novgorod, a doll was dropped from a height of 200 meters, out of 20 once - not a single misfire.

The formula of my invention is as follows: a rescue device for aviators with an automatically ejected parachute... I’m ready to test the invention in Krasnoe Selo..."
In December 1911, the “Bulletin of Finance, Industry and Trade” informed its readers about the applications received, including the application of G. E. Kotelnikov, however, “for unknown reasons, the inventor did not receive a patent. In January 1912, G. E. Kotelnikov made an application for his parachute in France and on March 20 of the same year received a patent No. 438 612." The first parachute tests were carried out on June 2, 1912 using a car. The car was accelerated, and Kotelnikov pulled the trigger strap. The parachute, tied to the towing hooks, instantly opened. The braking force was transferred to the car and the engine stalled. And on June 6 of the same year, parachute tests took place in the Gatchina camp of the Aeronautical School near the village of Salizi.
In 1923, Gleb Evgenievich created a new model of the RK-2 backpack parachute, and then a model of the RK-3 parachute with a soft backpack, for which patent No. 1607 was received on July 4, 1924. In the same 1924, Kotelnikov made a cargo parachute RK_4 with a canopy with a diameter of 12 m. This parachute could lower a load weighing up to 300 kg. In 1926, G. E. Kotelnikov transferred all his inventions to the Soviet government.

To commemorate the first test of a full-scale model of a backpack parachute, the village of Salizi, Gatchina region, was named Kotelnikovo. And not far from the training ground, a modest monument was erected with the image of a parachute. Biography:
Gleb Evgenievich Kotelnikov (January 18, 1930 January 872 St. Petersburg - November 22, 1944 Moscow) - inventor of the aviation backpack parachute.

Gleb Evgenievich Kotelnikov was born (18) January 30, 1872 in St. Petersburg in the family of a professor of mechanics and higher mathematics. The parents were fond of theater, and this hobby was instilled in their son. Since childhood, he sang, played the violin, and also liked to make various toys and models.

He graduated from the Kiev Military School (1894), and, after serving three years of compulsory service, went into the reserve. He served as an excise official in the provinces, helped organize drama clubs, sometimes acted in plays, and continued to design. In 1910, Gleb returned to St. Petersburg and became an actor in the troupe of the People's House on the St. Petersburg Side (pseudonym Glebov-Kotelnikov)
parachute deployment
In 1910, Kotelnikov, impressed by the death of the pilot L.M. Matsievich, began developing a parachute.

Before Kotelnikov, pilots escaped with the help of long folded “umbrellas” attached to the plane. Their design was very unreliable, and they greatly increased the weight of the aircraft. Therefore, they were used extremely rarely. In December 1911, Kotelnikov tried to register his invention, a free-action backpack parachute, in Russia, but for unknown reasons he did not receive a patent. The parachute had round shape, fit into a metal backpack located on the pilot using a suspension system. At the bottom of the backpack under the dome there were springs that threw the dome into the stream after the jumper pulled out the exhaust ring. Subsequently, the hard backpack was replaced by a soft one, and honeycombs appeared at its bottom for laying slings in them. This rescue parachute design is still used today.

He made a second attempt to register his invention in France, on March 20, 1912, receiving patent No. 438 612.

The RK-1 parachute (Russian, Kotelnikova, model one) was developed within 10 months, and its first demonstration test was carried out by Gleb Evgenievich in June 1912.

First, on June 2, 1912, tests were carried out using a car. The car was accelerated, and Kotelnikov pulled the trigger strap. The parachute, tied to the tow hooks, instantly opened, and its braking force was transmitted to the car, causing the engine to stall.

On June 6 of the same year, parachute tests took place in the Gatchina camp of the Aeronautical School near the village of Salizi.

At different altitudes, a mannequin weighing about 80 kg with a parachute was dropped from the balloon. All the throws were successful, but the Main Engineering Directorate of the Russian Army did not accept it into production because of the fears of the head of the Russian air force, Grand Duke Alexei Mikhailovich, that at the slightest malfunction the aviators would abandon the airplane.

In the winter of 1912-1913, the RK-1 parachute, designed by G. E. Kotelnikov, was presented by the commercial firm Lomach and Co. to a competition in Paris and Rouen. On January 5, 1913, Ossovsky, a student at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, first jumped with the RK-1 parachute in Rouen from the 60-meter mark of the bridge spanning the Seine. The parachute worked brilliantly. The Russian invention has received recognition abroad. But the tsarist government remembered him only during the First World War.

Not everyone knows how the parachute was born and that its inventor was a resident of St. Petersburg. Let's fill this knowledge gap.

GLEB EVGENIEVICH KOTELNIKOV was born in St. Petersburg on January 30, 1872. The Kotelnikov family has a penchant for creative work- science, invention, art - was clearly manifested in several generations. His father Evgeniy Grigorievich Kotelnikov was a professor of higher mathematics and mechanics at the Agricultural Institute. The mother, the daughter of a serf artist, was a gifted woman. She drew and sang well. Gleb Evgenievich was undoubtedly also a gifted person. He sang, played the violin, acted as a conductor, and was fond of fencing. From the spring of 1910 he was an actor (pseudonym Glebov-Kotelnikov) in St. Petersburg (from the end of 1910 in the troupe of the People's House on the St. Petersburg side). In addition, he had the “golden hands” of a mechanic, a tailor and a turner. Kotelnikov’s work history has been quite checkered. And yet, in a series of years and changes in occupation, he found the key task of his life - a parachute.

His mother, kind and selfless, played a big role in his upbringing. Gleb’s older brother Boris Evgenievich Kotelnikov recalled: “Mom didn’t like to visit, she only occasionally went to the theater, and devoted most of her time to us children, playing various plays and sometimes singing whole evenings. Back in Vilno, Ekaterina Ivanovna set up a home children's theater with a stage and curtain. They staged vaudeville and small plays and recited. Later, in St. Petersburg, a home puppet theater was set up.”

When the future inventor turned thirteen, his father, Evgeniy Grigorievich, became interested in photography. Gleb also dreamed of learning to take photographs, but his father did not give him an expensive camera. Then Gleb decided to make a camera himself. I bought a used lens from a junk dealer, and made the rest - the camera body and bellows - with my own hands. He also made photographic plates using the “wet” method that was then used. I showed the finished negative to my father. He praised his son, promised to buy a real camera, and the next day he fulfilled his promise.

In the summer of 1889, Gleb Kotelnikov witnessed an extraordinary spectacle. At the beginning of June, advertisements appeared in many St. Petersburg newspapers announcing that a hot air balloon flight and parachute jump by the American balloonist Charles Leroux would take place in the Arcadia garden. He saw the preparations for the flight, the flight itself, and then the man’s jump from a great height. The parachute smoothly lowered Leroy into the Bolshaya Nevka.

In 1889, his father died suddenly. During his father's life, Gleb dreamed of entering the Technological Institute or Conservatory. Now these dreams had to be abandoned. Only a military career was realistic. Gleb went to Kyiv and entered a military school.

In 1894, after graduating from college, Kotelnikov was promoted to artillery officer. Military service began in the sortie battery of the Ivangorod fortress.

In the fortress, Kotelnikov saw an observation balloon for the first time and was able to become well acquainted with its structure.

Having risen to the rank of lieutenant, G.E. Kotelnikov made a firm decision to leave military service. In 1897 he resigned.

What to do next, what to devote yourself to? This was a difficult question for young man. He decided to follow in the footsteps of his relatives - his father, uncles, older brother - into the excise department. At the same time, Gleb Evgenievich was well aware that it was unlikely that he would “find himself” there, that the excise service would not satisfy his creative nature. But he didn’t see any other way out yet. Thus began a new stage in his life, without exaggeration, the emptiest and most difficult.

In February 1899, Gleb Evgenievich married Yulia Vasilievna Volkova, the daughter of the Poltava artist V.A. Volkov. They knew each other since childhood. The choice turned out to be a happy one. They lived together in rare harmony for forty-five years.

It was difficult to find a service more alien to him than the excise tax. The only joy for G.E. Kotelnikov was the local amateur theater, in which Gleb Evgenievich was not only an actor, but in fact also the artistic director.

He continued to design. Having seen how hard the work of workers at distilleries was, Gleb Evgenievich developed the design of a bottling machine. I equipped my bicycle with a sail and successfully used it for long trips.

But the day came when G.E. Kotelnikov came to the conclusion: we need to radically change our lives, leave the excise tax, and so we have lived almost in vain for 10 years. We must go to St. Petersburg. Only there can you experience real theater. Yulia Vasilievna understood her husband. A talented artist, she had great hopes for moving to the capital: to master the skill of artistic miniatures, which especially attracted her” (by this time they had three children).

In September, on the outskirts of St. Petersburg, on the Commandant's Field, the All-Russian Aeronautics Festival, the first aviation competition of Russian pilots, took place. Thousands of spectators gathered to watch the flights.

The holiday was already coming to an end when a terrible tragedy occurred. Captain Matsievich's airplane collapsed in the air at an altitude of four hundred meters. The pilot fell out of the car and crashed.

On the day of the death of Captain Matsievich, G.E. Kotelnikov was among the public at one of the stands of the Commandant’s airfield. He saw the rapid fall and terrible death of the aviator. “The death of the young pilot on that memorable day,” Gleb Evgenievich later recalled, “shocked me so much that I decided, at all costs, to build a device that would protect the pilot’s life from mortal danger.” For him, a man seemingly far from aviation, the tragic incident aroused a strong desire to find a means that would prevent such tragedies, the senseless death of the pilot. “I turned my small room into a workshop,” wrote G.E. Kotelnikov, “and worked for more than a year on the invention of a new parachute.”

At home, on the street, in the theater, Kotelnikov never stopped thinking about how to arrange an aviation parachute. One day, seeing how one lady pulled out a tight silk ball from her purse, which unfurled into a large scarf, Kotelnikov guessed what his parachute should be like. The merit of the Russian inventor is also that he was the first to divide the slings into two shoulders. Now the parachutist could, holding the lines, maneuver, taking the most convenient position for landing. The canopy was placed in a backpack, and the jumper, using a simple device, could extend it in the air at a distance from the falling or burning aircraft. Before Kotelnikov, pilots escaped with the help of long folded “umbrellas” attached to the plane. Their design was very unreliable, and they greatly increased the weight of the aircraft. Therefore, they were used extremely rarely. He came to the firm conviction that the parachute should always be on the pilot during flight. Then, in a moment of danger, the aviator will be able to leave the car from any side, falling or burning. The parachute must always be ready for trouble-free operation. And this is what he came up with.

“The parachute must be placed inside a metal backpack, on a shelf with springs,” Kotelnikov reasoned. “The backpack must be closed with a lid with a latch. If you then pull the cord connected to the latch, the lid will open, and the springs will push the canopy and lines out. Under the pressure of air The parachute will open."

Everything worked out well in the reasoning. But how will a parachute actually work? Kotelnikov made a small model. I threw her off the kite several times and was pleased. Not a single misfire! The parachute had a round shape and was placed in a metal backpack located on the pilot using a suspension system. At the bottom of the backpack under the dome there were springs that threw the dome into the stream after the jumper pulled out the exhaust ring. Subsequently, the hard backpack was replaced by a soft one, and honeycombs appeared at its bottom for laying slings in them. This rescue parachute design is still used today.

He had no doubt that a real parachute would also function reliably, and that it would be greeted with great interest in aviation. And how could it be otherwise? After all, it was about saving the lives of aviators. But...

Kotelnikov remembered the meeting at which the parachute was discussed for the rest of his life. The chair was Major General Kovanko, head of the Officers' Aeronautical School. Gleb Evgenievich spoke about his invention and explained its structure.

“All this is wonderful,” the general suddenly interrupted him, “but here’s the thing. Don't you think that the impact of the parachute opening will cause the rescuer's legs to be torn off?

Kotelnikov began to explain the fallacy of this view, but he failed to convince the commission. The speaker was thanked for his message, but the parachute project was rejected.

The Main Engineering Directorate of the Russian Army did not accept it into production due to the fears of the head of the Russian air force, Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich, who unequivocally stated: “The parachute in aviation is a harmful thing, since pilots at the slightest danger will escape by parachute, leaving planes to die.” "

“At first I tried not to even think about the parachute,” said Gleb Evgenievich. To make a real parachute backpack, considerable funds were required. Kotelnikov did not have them.

The archive preserved a memorandum from reserve lieutenant Gleb Kotelnikov to Minister of War V.A. Sukhomlinov, in which the inventor asked for a subsidy for the construction of a prototype backpack parachute and reported that “August 4 this year. In Novgorod, the doll was dropped from a height of 200 meters, out of 20 times not a single misfire. The formula of my invention is as follows: a rescue device for aviators with an automatically ejected parachute... I’m ready to test the invention in Krasnoe Selo...”

In December 1911, the “Bulletin of Finance, Industry and Trade” informed its readers about the applications received, including Kotelnikov’s application for his invention - a free-action backpack parachute, but for unknown reasons the inventor did not receive a patent.

And suddenly a way out was found. At the beginning of January 1912, the inventor received a letter in which a St. Petersburg company that sold aviation equipment invited him “to come for negotiations.” Kotelnikov hopefully went to Millionnaya Street, where the company’s office was located.

He couldn't believe his ears. Kotelnikov's sponsor was the owner of the capital's Angleterre hotel, merchant Lomach. The company undertook to make a parachute backpack. Indeed, the very next day everything was purchased necessary materials, and work on making a parachute began to boil. At the same time, the head of the company, Wilhelm Lomach, sought permission to test. By the summer of 1912, such permission was received.

The first parachute tests were carried out on June 2, 1912 using a car. The car was accelerated, and Kotelnikov pulled the trigger strap. The parachute, tied to the towing hooks, instantly opened. The braking force was transferred to the car and the engine stalled.

On the evening of June 6, 1912, a kite balloon rose from the Aeronautical Park camp in the village of Salyuzi, near Gatchina. Attached to the side of his basket was a four-pound mannequin in an aviator's uniform.

At an altitude of 200 meters, the mannequin flew down. After a couple of seconds, a white dome opened above him.

Everyone congratulated Kotelnikov. But, as it turned out, it was too early to rejoice. Even after the mannequin successfully dropped from the airplane several times, nothing changed. The aviators still flew without parachutes, fell, were injured, and died. During 1911, 82 people died in aviation in all countries. For 1912 - 128 people.

In the winter of 1912-1913, the RK-1 parachute designed by G. E. Kotelnikov was presented by the commercial firm Lomach and Co. to a competition in Paris and Rouen. It was at that time that the French Colonel A. Lalance established a prize of 10 thousand francs for the best parachute for aviators. Lomach invited Kotelnikov to go to Paris. But Gleb Evgenievich was busy at the theater and could not go. Lomach went alone.

The parachute demonstration took place in the vicinity of Paris. The mannequin was thrown from hot air balloon. And a week later - from a high bridge over the Seine River. And on January 5, 1913, residents of the French city of Rouen witnessed an unexpected spectacle. A man jumped from a huge fifty-meter bridge across the Seine. At first he flew down like a stone, then a huge silk dome opened above him, carefully lowering him onto the water. The parachute worked brilliantly. The brave tester, a student at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, Ossovsky, was found by Lomach. Although both tests were successful, the Russian inventor did not receive a prize. It was given to a Frenchman for a less advanced parachute. But the Russian invention still received recognition abroad. Kotelnikov's parachute was patented in France, considered the birthplace of aeronautics.

Soon the First World War broke out, and then Kotelnikov’s invention was finally remembered. It was decided to equip the crews of the giant aircraft “Ilya Muromets” with backpack parachutes. The parachutes were made, but they remained in the warehouse. Later they were transferred to aeronautical units, and there they saved more than one aeronaut during the battles.

At the beginning of the war, reserve lieutenant G. E. Kotelnikov was drafted into the army and sent to automobile units. However, soon the pilot G.V. Alekhnovich convinced the command to supply the crews of multi-engine aircraft with RK-1 parachutes. Soon Kotelnikov was summoned to the Main Military Engineering Directorate and offered to take part in the manufacture of backpack parachutes for aviators.

Then - the revolution, the Civil War. News from abroad arrived with difficulty. Only in the 1920s did Kotelnikov learn that an aviation parachute, also a backpack one, was created in the USA in 1918. True, his backpack was not metal, but made of fabric. Busy Americans organized its mass production.

Since 1924, all American military pilots began to fly with parachutes without fail. Our country still lagged behind. In order to provide parachutes to at least the fighter pilots who risked their lives more than others, it was necessary to buy about two thousand American parachutes for gold.

For the first time in the USSR, test pilot M.M. used a rescue parachute. Gromov. This happened on June 23, 1927 at the Khodynka airfield. He deliberately put the car into a spin, was unable to get out of the spin, and left the plane at an altitude of 600m. It is known that an American company parachute made of pure silk was used. Then all pilots who escaped with the help of parachutes from this company were awarded a distinctive sign - a small golden caterpillar silkworm.

At first, the designer called his invention a “rescue device”; later, when 70 parachutes were made, on the cover of the instructions included in each backpack, it was written: “Instructions for handling the automatic backpack parachute of the Kotelnikov system,” and much later G.E. Kotelnikov named his parachute RK-1 ( Russian, Kotelnikova, model one). Subsequently, Kotelnikov significantly improved the design of the parachute and created new models.

In 1923, Gleb Evgenievich created a new model of the RK-2 backpack parachute, and then a model of the RK-3 parachute with a soft backpack, for which patent No. 1607 was received on July 4, 1924. In the same 1924, Kotelnikov made the RK-4 cargo parachute with a dome with a diameter of 12 m. This parachute could lower a load weighing up to 300 kg. In 1926, G.E. Kotelnikov transferred all his inventions to the Soviet government.

During the Great Patriotic War Kotelnikov lived in Leningrad, where he survived the siege. He then moved to Moscow, where he died on November 22, 1944.

In 1973, an alley on the territory of the former Commandant's airfield was named after Kotelnikov. Since 1949, the village of Saluzi near Gatchina, where the inventor tested the parachute he created in the camp of the Officer Aeronautical School in 1912, has been named Kotelnikovo (in 1972, a memorial sign was unveiled at the entrance to it).

This post will tell you how the parachute was invented and what they wrote about it in newspapers at the beginning of the last century.

The world's first backpack parachute with a silk canopy - that is, the kind that is still used today - was invented by the self-taught Russian designer Gleb Kotelnikov. On November 9, 1911, the inventor received a “certificate of protection” (confirmation of acceptance of a patent application) for his “rescue pack for aviators with an automatically ejectable parachute.” And on June 6, 1912, the first test of a parachute of his design took place.

This is what the popular magazine of that time, Ogonyok, wrote about this

Before this, there were attempts to invent a life-saving device for aviators:

The creator of what is today called a “parachute” had a passion for design since childhood. But not only: no less than calculations and drawings, he was fascinated by stage lights and music. And it is not surprising that in 1897, after three years of compulsory service, a graduate of the legendary Kyiv Military School (which, in particular, General Anton Denikin graduated from) Gleb Kotelnikov resigned. And after another 13 years he left public service and completely switched to the service of Melpomene: he became an actor in the troupe of the People's House on the St. Petersburg side and performed under the pseudonym Glebov-Kotelnikov.

The future father of the backpack parachute would have remained a little-known actor if not for the talent of the designer and a tragic incident: on September 24, 1910, Kotelnikov, who was present at the All-Russian Aeronautics Festival, witnessed the sudden death of one of the best pilots of that time - Captain Lev Matsievich.

His Farman IV literally fell apart in the air - it was the first plane crash in the history of the Russian Empire.

From that moment on, Kotelnikov did not abandon the idea of ​​​​giving pilots a chance for salvation in such cases. “The death of the young pilot shocked me so deeply that I decided at all costs to build a device that would protect the pilot’s life from mortal danger,” Gleb Kotelnikov wrote in his memoirs. “I turned my small room into a workshop and worked on the invention for over a year.” According to eyewitnesses, Kotelnikov worked on his idea like a man possessed. The thought of a new type of parachute never left him anywhere: neither at home, nor in the theater, nor on the street, nor at rare parties.

The main problem was the weight and dimensions of the device. By that time, parachutes already existed and were used as a means of rescuing pilots; they were a kind of giant umbrellas mounted behind the pilot's seat on an airplane. In the event of a disaster, the pilot had to have time to secure himself on such a parachute and separate from the aircraft with it. However, Matsievich’s death proved: the pilot may simply not have these few moments on which his life literally depends.

“I realized that it was necessary to create a durable and lightweight parachute,” Kotelnikov later recalled. — Folded, it should be quite small. The main thing is that it is always on the person. Then the pilot will be able to jump from the wing and from the side of any aircraft.” This is how the idea of ​​a backpack parachute was born, which today, in fact, is what we mean when we use the word “parachute”.

“I wanted to make my parachute so that it could always be on a flying person, without restricting his movements as much as possible,” Kotelnikov wrote in his memoirs. — I decided to make a parachute from durable and thin non-rubberized silk. This material gave me the opportunity to pack it into a very small backpack. I used a special spring to push the parachute out of the backpack.”

But few people know that the first option for placing a parachute was... the pilot’s helmet! Kotelnikov began his experiments by hiding a literally puppet parachute - since he carried out all his early experiments with a doll - in a cylindrical helmet. This is how the inventor’s son, Anatoly Kotelnikov, who was 11 years old in 1910, later recalled these first experiments: “We lived in a dacha in Strelna. It was a very cold October day. The father climbed to the roof of a two-story house and threw the doll from there. The parachute worked great. Only one word came out of my father joyfully: “Here!” He found what he was looking for!”

However, the inventor quickly realized that when jumping with such a parachute, at the moment when the canopy opens, at best, the helmet will come off, and at worst, the head. And in the end, he transferred the entire structure to a backpack, which he first intended to make from wood, and then from aluminum. At the same time, Kotelnikov divided the lines into two groups, once and for all incorporating this element into the design of any parachutes. Firstly, it made the dome easier to control. And secondly, it was possible to attach the parachute to the harness system at two points, which made the jump and deployment more convenient and safe for the parachutist. This is how it appeared suspension system, which is still used almost unchanged today, except that it did not have leg loops.

As we already know, the official birthday of the backpack parachute was November 9, 1911, when Kotelnikov received a certificate of protection for his invention. But why he ultimately failed to patent his invention in Russia still remains a mystery. But two months later, in January 1912, Kotelnikov’s invention was announced in France and received a French patent in the spring of that year. On June 6, 1912, parachute tests took place in the Gatchina Aeronautical School camp near the village of Salizi: the invention was demonstrated high ranks Russian army. Six months later, on January 5, 1913, Kotelnikov’s parachute was presented to a foreign public: Vladimir Ossovsky, a student at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, jumped with it in Rouen from a 60-meter-high bridge.

By this time, the inventor had already finalized his design and decided to give it a name. He named his parachute RK-1 - that is, “Russian, Kotelnikov, first.” So Kotelnikov combined everything in one abbreviation essential information: both the name of the inventor, and the country to which he owed his invention, and his primacy. And he secured it for Russia forever.

“Parachutes in aviation are generally a harmful thing...”

As often happens with domestic inventions, they cannot be appreciated for a long time in their homeland. This, alas, happened with the backpack parachute. The first attempt to provide it to all Russian pilots ran into a rather stupid refusal. “Parachutes in aviation are generally a harmful thing, since pilots, at the slightest danger threatening them from the enemy, will escape by parachute, leaving their planes to die. Cars more expensive than people. We import cars from abroad, so they should be taken care of. But there will be people, not those, but others!” - such a resolution was imposed on Kotelnikov’s petition by the Commander-in-Chief of the Russian air force Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich.

With the beginning of the war, parachutes were remembered. Kotelnikov was even involved in the production of 70 backpack parachutes for the crews of the Ilya Muromets bombers. But in the cramped conditions of those planes, the backpacks got in the way, and the pilots abandoned them. The same thing happened when the parachutes were handed over to the aeronauts: it was inconvenient for them to tinker with the backpacks in the cramped baskets of the observers. Then the parachutes were pulled out of the packs and simply attached to the balloons - so that the observer, if necessary, could simply jump overboard, and the parachute would open on its own. That is, everything has returned to the ideas of a century ago!

Everything changed when in 1924 Gleb Kotelnikov received a patent for a backpack parachute with a canvas backpack - RK-2, and then modified it and called it RK-3. Comparative tests of this parachute and the same one, but French system showed the advantages of the domestic design.

In 1926, Kotelnikov transferred all rights to his inventions Soviet Russia and was no longer involved in invention. But he wrote a book about his work on the parachute, which went through three reprints, including in the difficult year of 1943. And the backpack parachute created by Kotelnikov is still used all over the world, having withstood, figuratively speaking, more than a dozen “reissues.” Is it by chance that today’s paratroopers certainly come to Kotelnikov’s grave at the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow, tying retaining tapes from their canopies to the tree branches around them...

Forgotten pages of the Great War

Kotelnikov's parachute

Kotelnikov with a parachute

own invention

The word "parachute" consists of two words and translated from French literally means "against falling." In the summer of 1917, parachutes appeared in the active army.

It would seem that since the word is French, therefore the subject itself was invented in France. Although this rule does not always work. For example, the famous Olivier salad has a clearly French name, but was created in Russia. That's what happened with the parachute. Inventor of the first modern parachute there was a Russian self-taught designer Gleb Kotelnikov. He patented his brainchild in 1912. Moreover, not only in Russia, but also in several European countries, in particular France. So there is no doubt about who owns the palm.

The first jump was also made by a Russian, a student at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, Vladimir Ossovsky. He successfully parachuted into French city Rouen from a height of 60 meters in January 1913. Gleb Kotelnikov, a career officer in the Russian army who graduated from the Kiev Military School and retired after three years of service, did not invent the parachute for fun. In October 1910, during the All-Russian Aeronautics Festival, pilot Lev Matsievich died at the Kolomyazhsky airfield near St. Petersburg. He opened a sacrificial list in Russian aviation. The death of Matsievich in front of a crowd of thousands made a colossal impression, including on the actor of the troupe of the People's House on the Petrograd Side, Gleb Kotelnikov. The retired lieutenant suddenly realized that it was necessary to create a means of escape for pilots and other aeronauts. And he got down to business.

Gleb Kotelnikov with test dummy Ivan Ivanovich

The backpack parachute he created a year later was initially tested on dummies weighing 80 kg. And always successfully. However, official structures were in no hurry to accept and put the invention into production. They started from the statement of Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich, who oversaw the nascent aviation, the meaning of which was that the presence of life-saving equipment on board at the slightest malfunction would provoke the pilot to leave the plane. And airplanes purchased abroad are expensive... Typical in this sense is the reply from the head of the Electrical Engineering Department of the Main Engineering Directorate (GIU), Lieutenant General Alexander Pavlov (in many materials on this topic he is mistakenly called A.P. Pavlov, although in fact his name is - the patronymic of the general - Alexander Alexandrovich) wrote: “Returning the drawing and description of the automatically operating parachute of your invention, the State Administration notifies that the “ejector backpack” you invented does not in any way ensure the reliability of opening the parachute after throwing it out of the backpack, and therefore cannot be accepted as a rescue device... The experiments you carried out with the model cannot be considered convincing... In view of the above, the State Institution rejects your proposal.” It is curious that after about a month, General Pavlov retired. However, the general’s retrograde could have been a consequence of the instructions of the already mentioned Grand Duke. And it doesn’t matter that all the numerous tests carried out from a stationary and flying balloon and airplane showed the reliability of the design. If there was anything that caused criticism from experts, in particular, the first Russian aviator, later military pilot Mikhail Efimov, it was the weight of the backpack. With 15 kilograms on your back, movement in the cramped space of airplanes of that time was very difficult. The balloon baskets were also no different in terms of comfort.

Military pilot

Gleb Alekhnovich

Started I World War, and Lieutenant Kotelnikov was drafted into the army and was sent to the South-Western Front in the automobile troops. However, he was soon recalled to the rear. They remembered “above” about his parachute. And they finally decided to begin introducing the invention into the practice of aeronautical forces and aviation. They decided to start by providing parachutes for the crews of the Ilya Muromets heavy bombers. This decision was “pushed through” by military pilot Gleb Alekhnovich, commander of the Muromets-V crew. Kotelnikov was ordered 70 copies. The order was completed, but for two years the parachutes lay as dead weight. Military pilots did not use them. There was no order. Yes, and experience too.

Meanwhile, by mid-1916, intensive use of tethered balloons began as observation points and artillery fire adjustments. From above, as they say, you can see better. This method of reconnaissance turned out to be effective, but also extremely dangerous. German fighters hunted for balloons on both the Western and Eastern Fronts with particular passion. After the use of parachutes from the French company "Jucmes" near Verdun, which saved the lives of several observers, there was no longer any need to prove the relevance of using slings and silk. But they entered the State Higher Technical University (formerly the State Institution before 1913) according to the “good” Russian tradition: instead of using their own invention, which also proved its reliability, they preferred to purchase parachutes in France. For gold, of course. We purchased 200 pieces. Parachutes were also ordered for Kotelnikov, but their number was miniscule.

Inventor

aeronautical

parachute Georges Juquemes

Separately, regarding the Zhukmes parachutes. There is a version that this is the original invention of the famous European aeronaut Georges Jucmes. There is another one. After Kotelnikov’s backpack parachute was demonstrated in 1912 at an exhibition in France, representatives of the Zhukmes company became interested in it. Fortunately, the invention could be borrowed, since it was represented by the private Russian company Lomach and K, and not at all by official Russian structures. In any case, in terms of technical characteristics, the Zhukmes was inferior to the RK-1. In an attempt to simplify the design, the French brought the lines into one bundle behind the parachutist’s shoulders, which deprived him of any ability to maneuver and increased the risk of the fastening breaking. In Kotelnikov’s apparatus, the slings were divided into two bundles and placed on the shoulders, which made it possible to control movement in the air.

In May 1917, training of flight personnel to parachute jumps began. We studied both on the “jukmes” and on the Russian RK-1. So, for example, a report was placed on the desk of the commander of the Officers’ Aeronautical School, Lieutenant General Alexander Kovanko: “On May 12th (Old Art. – author’s note), experiments were carried out with Kotelnikov’s parachute. A scarecrow weighing 5 pounds was dropped twice from a height of 200 and 300 meters. Both times the parachute opened and the scarecrow smoothly sank to the ground. Then... Second Lieutenant Ostratov rose in the basket, who, putting on a parachute belt, jumped out of the basket from a height of 500 meters. The parachute did not open for about three seconds, and then it opened, and Ostratov landed quite safely on the ground. According to Second Lieutenant Ostratov, he did not feel any painful phenomena during the descent. I consider it necessary to bring to your attention such positive results of the parachute test. A safe parachute descent should give balloonists more confidence in parachutes.”

At the same time, there were jumps with a less advanced French apparatus behind them. For example, the lieutenant of one of the aeronautical detachments, Anoshchenko, took a risk, after which he summarized: “Now we firmly believe in parachutes, we believe that in a dangerous moment they will save us.” A day earlier, a similar attempt was made by Staff Captain Sokolov. He jumped from a height of 700 meters from the side of a balloon basket and landed without damage. Not all training jumps with “jukmes” ended successfully. Behind short period several balloonists died. Oddly enough, jumping statistics from that time have been preserved. 56 jumps were made with the “jukmes”. 41 were successful. In eight cases, the parachutists died, in seven they received various injuries. There were only five experienced jumps with RK-1 under my belt. And everything ended well. By the way, what does the abbreviation RK-1 mean? It’s very simple: “Russian Kotelnikov is the first.” It looked like this: a backpack in the form of a metal container with a hinged lid at the top, which was secured with a special belt. Inside the container there is a spiral spring and a plate, which, like a piston, pushed the laid dome with slings out of the container.

Gleb Evgenievich Kotelnikov died in 1944, having survived the Leningrad blockade. He was responsible for many inventions in the field of parachute construction. That’s why he rests at the Novodevichy cemetery in Moscow. In St. Petersburg, on the 14th line of Vasilievsky Island, there is a memorial plaque on the house in which the inventor lived in 1912-1941. And the village of Salizi near Gatchina, where the first tests of the RK-1 were carried out, was renamed in 1949 to Kotelnikovo.

Mikhail BYKOV,

especially for Polevaya Post