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Guidance For Use

Skydiving

UK Governing Body

- British Parachute Association


International Governing Body

- Fédération Aéronautique Internationale

Skydiving Overview

Parachutes were first seen in the drawings of the ancient Chinese and then later those of Leonardo da Vinci but it wasn't until the late 18th Century when they were used for the first time. Frenchman, Andre Jacques Garnerin made the first known jump from a hot air balloon in 1787, using a silk parachute. The first free-fall jump came just over 100 years later in Ohio in 1919. The hand operated chute revolutionised parachuting and the sport of skydiving was born.


The first World Championships were held in Yugoslavia in 1951 and since then formation skydiving is the fastest growing and most popular discipline within the sport of skydiving. Formation Skydiving is a fast, furious and highly competitive discipline whereby aerial athletes exit an aircraft at approximately 11,000 feet and race through a sequence of formations in freefall, against a clock. Each jump is filmed from above by a "camaraflyer" and the footage is used to score the team by a number of judges once they are on the ground.