Floyd Smith – Meet the Maverick Inventor Behind the U.S. Military’s Parachutes of WW2
“By 1942, Smith’s company became the largest producer of nylon parachutes in the world, producing 300 parachutes each day for the U.S. military.
MILITARY AVIATION buffs might not know the name Floyd Smith, but all are familiar with his life-saving invention: the modern parachute.
While parachutes date back to the Renaissance – with improvements made throughout the 18th and 19th
centuries – Smith’s design made substantial enhancements. These
included the ability to store the parachute on a pilot’s back, the
addition of a ripcord that allowed for deployment safely away from an
airplane, and the addition of a smaller “pilot chute” that would pull
the main parachute from the pack and open it. These advancements saved
the lives of many Allied troops during World War II.
In recognition of Armed Forces Day, the National Inventors Hall of Fame (NIHF)
invites you to learn more about the incredible life of recent NIHF
Inductee Floyd Smith, inventor of the modern parachute.
A Life of Death-Defying Experiences
Born in 1884 in Geneseo, Illinois, the story of Smith’s life sounds
similar to the script for an action movie. At just 10 years old, he was a
cowboy earning his own living on a ranch. He later worked as a
machinist, an orange grower, a sugar factory worker and a trapeze artist
in the circus.
As a member of the Flying Sylvesters, he toured the country for
several years, performing in circus and vaudeville acts. In 1907, he
married Hilder F. Youngberg, his fearless partner in daring aerial acts.
The couple’s shared interest in airplanes led them to try building one
of their own, and in 1912, they built a tractor biplane. It took Smith
just six days to learn how to fly. The couple later flew their plane
from Santa Ana to Griffith Park in Los Angeles, completing the trip in
one hour and seven minutes and setting a speed record for the time.
Barnstorming and Parachuting
Toward the end of World War I, the United States found itself with
surplus aircraft. Fighter pilots began purchasing planes for only $200
(compared to their $5,000
price tag during the war) and traveling to different towns to put on
aerial performances as a way to support themselves. Named after the
agreements pilots made with farmers to use their fields to perform,
“barnstorming,” or stunt flying, became a popular form of entertainment.
Due to a lack of regulation, pilots were able to fly incredibly low
to the ground and perform death-defying stunts like walking across an
aircraft’s wings or hanging onto a plane with one arm.
Following their record-setting flight to Griffith Park and inspired by
their experience with the Flying Sylvesters, the Smiths began
barnstorming and were attracted to the thrill it provided.
When Smith began to work as a mechanic at the Glenn L. Martin Co.
factory in Los Angeles, he soon found another source of thrills as he
made his first parachute jump.
Smith’s first jump was made with a static-line chute, which attached
to the plane. Though he managed to land safely, he realized how easily
he could have become entangled in the parachute cord following his jump.
Not long after this first jump, Smith’s wife had a harrowing
experience with a parachute jump of her own. On a particularly windy day
in April 1914, Hilder’s jump went wrong when the plane she was in flew
off course above the Pacific Ocean. Because she could not swim, she
panicked and fell, twisting the lines of her parachute in the process.
Fortunately, she was able to untangle herself and deploy her parachute
250 feet above the water. Gliding safely to land, she missed the water
by just 50 feet.
Smith quickly became convinced that jumpers needed the ability to
manually operate the deployment of their parachute, instead of having it
connected to the plane itself.
A Reliably Safe Design
Smith designed a parachute that would be worn on the body and could
be released by a mechanism that was attached to the pack itself. This
model would allow jumpers to deploy the parachute’s canopy manually,
using a ripcord.
Around the time Smith filed a patent to protect his parachute design,
in July 1918, he was hired by the U.S. Army to inspect and test planes
at South Field in Dayton, Ohio. His parachute would prove to be just
what the Army needed. The design offered exceptional adaptability in
escaping from dangerous situations in planes, such as spins, dives or
inverted positions. A parachute design called the “Type A,” closely
based on Smith’s original model, became the Army’s standard parachute.
When Smith left government service in 1919, he licensed his patents to a number of parachute manufacturers and help found the Pioneer Parachute Co., where he served as both vice president and chief engineer.
Due to silk shortages caused by World War II, Pioneer decided to
manufacture their parachutes out of nylon and by 1942, Smith’s company
became the largest producer of nylon parachutes in the world, producing 300 parachutes each day for the U.S. military. During D-Day, many American troops used Pioneer parachutes to jump behind enemy lines.
In 1947, Smith founded the Smith Parachute Co. with his son, Prevost. This company continued to innovate and improve parachute technology and developed special parachutes for astronauts and for supply drops of military weapons and equipment.
Smith passed away in 1956 and is buried along with his wife under the dome of The Portal of the Folded Wings, a monument dedicated to American aviation pioneers.
