Martin Antonenko
A Fixture
- Joined
- Jul 11, 2008
- Messages
- 8,994
Fatal miscalculation!
On July 24, 1837, Londoners flock to the already very popular amusement park "Vauxhall Gardens".
Because there is a sensation waiting for you that you don't want to miss:
The inventor Robert Cocking...
...want to demonstrate a device he developed himself, with which he can jump out of a flying balloon and glide down to earth unharmed.
Cocking, who hopes to generate a large income from the sale of his invention, has announced the event publicly in order to have as many people as possible...:
Cocking is already 62 years old and a complete autodidact! What he knows about flying, he has read in books.
His device - today we would call it a "parachute" - has a diameter of 32 meters and is shaped like an umbrella folded over by the storm, connected to ropes at the top. Beneath it hangs a basket in which a person can stand...:
In front of thousands of spectators, at exactly 7.35 a.m. local time, Cocking climbs into the basket of his device, which is attached under a hot-air balloon operated by two experienced airshipmen.
The balloon drags the inventor up. ..:
Cocking originally intended to jump from 8,000 feet, but miscalculated the weight - he forgot to include the two airmen's own weight and his own!
At an altitude of 1,500 m, almost above Greenwich, the aeronauts Charles Green...
...and Edward Spencer...
... told Cocking the fact that there is not enough time to climb higher, since the attempt is to be made in daylight.
In view of this fact, Cocking decides to jump at a height of 1,500 meters.
The audience, who is watching breathlessly on earth, is really offered something:
It quickly becomes clear that the inventor is in trouble!
For a few seconds, the fall is fast but steady, then the parachute can no longer withstand the air pressure. It flips up completely and Cocking falls. The umbrella shatters in mid-air before it hits the ground.
Cocking died instantly, his body found in a field near Lee (now a borough of London).
When his construction plans are later checked by Charles Green and Edward Spencer, it turns out that Cockering made another - deadly - calculation error:
He had forgotten to include the weight of the parachute in his overall calculations!
Robert Cockering paid for this mistake with his life.
Yet he went down in history as the first British skydiver...
On July 24, 1837, Londoners flock to the already very popular amusement park "Vauxhall Gardens".
Because there is a sensation waiting for you that you don't want to miss:
The inventor Robert Cocking...
...want to demonstrate a device he developed himself, with which he can jump out of a flying balloon and glide down to earth unharmed.
Cocking, who hopes to generate a large income from the sale of his invention, has announced the event publicly in order to have as many people as possible...:
Cocking is already 62 years old and a complete autodidact! What he knows about flying, he has read in books.
His device - today we would call it a "parachute" - has a diameter of 32 meters and is shaped like an umbrella folded over by the storm, connected to ropes at the top. Beneath it hangs a basket in which a person can stand...:
In front of thousands of spectators, at exactly 7.35 a.m. local time, Cocking climbs into the basket of his device, which is attached under a hot-air balloon operated by two experienced airshipmen.
The balloon drags the inventor up. ..:
Cocking originally intended to jump from 8,000 feet, but miscalculated the weight - he forgot to include the two airmen's own weight and his own!
At an altitude of 1,500 m, almost above Greenwich, the aeronauts Charles Green...
...and Edward Spencer...
... told Cocking the fact that there is not enough time to climb higher, since the attempt is to be made in daylight.
In view of this fact, Cocking decides to jump at a height of 1,500 meters.
The audience, who is watching breathlessly on earth, is really offered something:
It quickly becomes clear that the inventor is in trouble!
For a few seconds, the fall is fast but steady, then the parachute can no longer withstand the air pressure. It flips up completely and Cocking falls. The umbrella shatters in mid-air before it hits the ground.
Cocking died instantly, his body found in a field near Lee (now a borough of London).
When his construction plans are later checked by Charles Green and Edward Spencer, it turns out that Cockering made another - deadly - calculation error:
He had forgotten to include the weight of the parachute in his overall calculations!
Robert Cockering paid for this mistake with his life.
Yet he went down in history as the first British skydiver...
