Da Vinci was the first person to introduce parachute in c. 1483 in a notebook margin. It was in sketched form. Thereafter the first practical parachute was invented by Sebastien Lenormand in 1783. And it was not so successful. In 1785, the first successful parachute was invented by a French aeronaut. Thereafter, there were a few people who modified these ideas.

During the next century, parachute use was confined to carnivals and daredevil acts. Acrobats would perform stunts on a trapeze bar suspended from a descending parachute.The next major contribution to parachute systems was the development of a harness by Captain Thomas Baldwin in 1887. The concept of folding or packing the parachute in a knapsak-like container was developed by Paul Letteman and Kathchen Paulus in 1890. The development of sport parachutes beyond solid cloth parachutes began in the early 1960's. Solid cloth parachutes were modified with drive slots that provide greater stability and horizontal speed.