Robert Cocking

Cocking's parachute construction from 1837

Robert Cocking (* 1776 ; † July 24, 1837 in London ) was the inventor of one of the first parachute constructions , but it did not work. He was the first skydiver to have a fatal accident while jumping with a parachute.

The parachute

Robert Cocking was an artist with a keen interest in science. He had seen André-Jacques Garnerin who made the first parachute jump in England in 1802 . Reading George Cayley 's On Aerial Navigation inspired Robert Cocking to improve the design of the Garnerin parachute.

Cayley's paper, published 1809-1810, covered Garnerin's leap in detail. Garnerin had used an umbrella-shaped parachute that swayed heavily during the jump. George Cayley made a theory that a cone-shaped parachute would be more stable. Cocking worked for several years on the development of a parachute that was improved according to Cayley's ideas. Robert Cocking's parachute had a diameter of 32 m and the shape of an umbrella that had been folded down by a storm and was connected at the top with ropes. Cocking asked Charles Green and Edward Spencer (1799-1849), the owners of the Royal Nassau balloon (formerly Royal Vauxhall ), to give him an opportunity to test his invention. Since Cocking was 61 years old, had no training as a scientist and had no experience with skydiving, Green and Spencer agreed to support him. They announced the jump as the main attraction of a grand day party in London's Vauxhall Gardens amusement park .

On July 24, 1837, at 7:35 a.m. local time, Robert Cocking climbed into a basket that hung under his parachute, which in turn hung under the basket of the balloon being carried by Green and Spencer. Cocking hoped to jump from a height of 2,500 m, but the weight of the balloon, combined with the weight of the parachute and that of the three men, slowed the ascent. At an altitude of 1,500 m, approximately above Greenwich , Green Cocking announced that there was not enough time to ascend higher because the attempt was to be made in daylight. In light of this, Cocking decided to jump.

The crash

A large crowd had gathered to witness the event. It quickly became clear that Cocking was in trouble. He had failed to include the weight of the parachute in his calculations. For a few seconds the fall was fast but steady, but then the parachute could no longer withstand the air pressure. It flipped up completely and Cocking fell. The screen broke in midair before hitting the ground. Cocking was killed instantly, his body was found in a field near Lee (now a part of London).

The blame for the accident was first placed on George Cayley, but later tests proved that although Cayley had failed to mention the extra weight of the parachute in his writing, the cause of the crash was a combination of the weight of the parachute and his own poor workmanship, especially the seams that were too weak to attach the ropes. Robert Cocking's parachute weighed 115 kg, many times the weight of modern parachutes.

Tests carried out by the American balloonist and inventor of the rippy track , John Wise , proved that Cocking's parachute would have worked if it had been bigger and better built. By comparing Garnerin's and Cocking's parachutes, he found that the latter would have been smoother and more stable. The problem of pendulum movements, which appeared for the first time with Garnerin's parachute, was later solved by adding a vertex opening at the top of the parachute.

Robert Cocking's death made skydiving unpopular and limited to circus and carnival events until the 19th century .

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personal data
SURNAME	Cocking, Robert
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	British inventor
DATE OF BIRTH	1776
DATE OF DEATH	July 24, 1837
Place of death	London