What Parachute Types Are There?

The parachute is the star of the show in the skydiving world. We quite literally couldn’t do what we love without it. But did you know that skydivers have used multiple parachute types over the years? Different kinds of parachutes have evolved to fit the needs of our ever-changing sport, and some even have specialty uses for specific skydiving disciplines. 

In fact, there are so many different types of parachute that you probably don’t know ’em all! Here’s a rundown of several of the normal and not-so-normal types of parachutes that help skydivers (and far-flung cargo) make their way softly back down to terra firma.

The History of Parachutes

The jump is the easy part when it comes to falling from extreme heights – it’s the landing that’s hard (get it?). And that’s where the parachute comes in. Cue the entrance of Louis-Sébastien Lenormand. Though he’s not the inventor of the parachute, he is the first person to make a recorded (and successful) public jump. The year was 1783, and the jump was from the tower of the Montpellier Observatory in France. Lenormand is actually the one who coined the term “parachute” in 1785 by combining an Italian prefix para (meaning to avert, defend, resist, guard, shield or shroud) and chute, the French word for fall. 

André-Jacques Garnerin also made skydiving history in France in the 1700s – there must have been something in the air! Garnerin was a hot air balloon expert and the inventor of the frameless parachute. In 1797, he ascended in a gondola attached to a parachute and a balloon. At altitude, Garnerin released the balloon and soared over Paris under his grand parachute.

These parachutes, while effective, are extremely crude versions of what this life-saving piece of equipment would become. With extensive research, development, and the dedication of a lot of extremely brave people, the parachute underwent redesign after redesign until it finally became the technological wonder that it is today. 

Round Parachutes

Round parachutes were the first tools for fabric descent. Even the earliest parachutes resemble their round grandchildren despite existing hundreds of years apart. If your mental image of a parachute involves a big, inverted dome of fabric suspended over a dangling jumper, then it’s a round parachute you’re thinking of! They almost look like jellyfish floating through the sky.

Round parachutes served a purpose for a very long time (and still do, in some very specific circumstances), but there were a few issues with this design that caused them to eventually fade from regular use. First off: they’re (gulp!) unsteerable. Secondly, they’re (double gulp!) not super-likely to land lightly.

Round parachutes were adapted for sport skydiving from surplus military gear before civilian skydiving had its own gear industry. Early skydivers would modify their military rounds to be more dynamic in flight, and it was this ingenuity and dedication to progress that eventually led us to the ram air parachutes we depend on today! 

Ram Air Parachutes

The venerable ram air parachute is the rightful king of all designs. As a matter of fact, just about everyone in the sky today uses ram air canopies to get down. You’ll recognize them instantly: a square or rectangular fabric wing, wherein a top and bottom sheet of nylon are attached by a set of fabric ribs between them. They have an uncanny resemblance to an airplane wing, and for very good reason – that’s exactly how they work!

The ribs divide the parachute into a set of individual cells that inflate when the parachute is deployed, and this makes the parachute into a rigid wing. When that inflation happens, the wing becomes a steerable airfoil and … bingo! A stable flying machine that slows you down, steers like a dream and “flares” to land you as softly as a pretty little fairy princess.

The shape of ram air parachutes actually creates lift the same way an airplane wing does to achieve a sort of gliding momentum through the air that is both fun to steer and easy to land. 

Specialty Parachutes

As skydiving has evolved, so has our equipment. As a result, there are subclasses of parachutes that are used for different jobs, disciplines, and airsports. 

Tandem Parachutes 

Tandem skydives require highly specific equipment that can handle the weight of two people – an instructor and their student. Research and development through the 1980s led to an adaptation to the ram air parachute in order to accommodate the specific needs of tandem skydiving. The ram air tandem parachute is larger and more docile than your everyday sport parachute so that a tandem pair can have a comfortable, enjoyable ride and easy landing.

Reserve Parachutes

Like main parachutes, reserves started out as rounds and eventually became ram air parachutes – but, unlike main sport parachutes, they are constructed to be extremely docile in flight and open much faster than their leading character cousins. This is because they are for use in emergency situations, so they need to be extremely reliable and easy to fly.

Cruciform Parachutes

These are almost exclusively used by the military as an advanced version of the age-old round parachute. They’re not round, per se, but they’re certainly not the square modern parachutes we use for most purposes today. The difference is this: their squared-off profile decreases oscillation and ends up resulting in fewer landing injuries for the jumpers and cargo that dangle helplessly below.

Rogallo Wings

You’ll pretty much never see a rogallo parachute in the sport skydiving world – but you just might see one in paragliding where they’re commonly used as rescue parachutes. The wing design is highly recognizable: springy and flexible. The Rogallo wing is most often seen in toy kites, but has been used to construct descent parachutes for spacecraft, as well as provide an airfoil for ultralight powered aircraft like trikes.

Want to find out what it feels like to steer a ram air parachute? We’d love to show you! Come on over and join one of our awesome tandem instructors for a comprehensive introduction to one of our skydiving parachutes. You’re gonna love it – book your jump today!