James Floyd Smith (17 October 1884 – 18 April 1956) was an inventor, aviation pioneer, and parachute manufacturer. With borrowed money, he built, then taught himself to fly his own airplane. He worked as a flight instructor and test pilot for Glenn L. Martin at Bennett's bean field, which became LAX. From San Diego in 1916, Smith won the

Aero Club of America The Aero Club of America was a social club formed in 1905 by Charles Jasper Glidden and Augustus Post, among others, to promote aviation in America. It was the parent organization of numerous state chapters, the first being the Aero Club of New ...

's Medal of Merit by setting three altitude records, flying a

Martin S __NOTOC__ The Martin S was a two-seat observation seaplane produced by the Glenn L. Martin Company in the United States in 1915.Taylor 1989, 635 Designed along the same general lines as the preceding Model T,''The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Ai ...

seaplane reaching that aircraft's

ceiling A ceiling is an overhead interior surface that covers the upper limits of a room. It is not generally considered a structural element, but a finished surface concealing the underside of the roof structure or the floor of a story above. Ceilings ...

of 12,333 feet. During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

, he formed the Floyd Smith Aerial Equipment Company in San Diego, California. In May 1920, he won a patent for the first back pack, free fall type, ripcord operated parachute, designed in response to his wife

Hilder Florentina Smith Hilder Florentina Youngberg Smith (August 10, 1890 – January 11, 1977) was an aerial acrobat, parachutist, and pioneer aviator. She was one of California's first female pilots and the first woman to fly an airplane from LAX. Hilder was a m ...

's near fatal static line jump in 1914. Smith's original ripcord parachute is on display at the

National Museum of the United States Air Force The National Museum of the United States Air Force (formerly the United States Air Force Museum) is the official museum of the United States Air Force located at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, northeast of Dayton, Ohio. The NMUSAF is the ...

at Dayton, Ohio.

Biography

Smith was born in

Geneseo, Illinois Geneseo is a city in Henry County, Illinois, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 6,539. Geneseo is 20 miles east of the Quad Cities, at the intersection of Interstate 80, U.S. Route 6 and Illinois Route 82. Geneseo is well ...

on 17 October 1884, his family then moved to

Union, Oregon Union is a city in Union County, Oregon, United States. The population was 2,121 at the 2010 census. Union is the namesake of Union County. History Union was platted on November 11, 1864 along the Oregon Trail. The name references the Union ...

. Floyd was a cowboy, machinist, orange grower, sugar factory worker, and flying circus trapeze artist with the Flying Sylvesters. On 11 May 1907 he married his Flying Sylvesters daredevil co-star Hilder Florentina Youngberg of

Galesburg, Illinois Galesburg is a city in Knox County, Illinois, United States. The city is northwest of Peoria. At the 2010 census, its population was 32,195. It is the county seat of Knox County and the principal city of the Galesburg Micropolitan Statistic ...

Hilder_Florentina_Youngber_Smith_circa_1914_1915

They had two sons Sylvester Smith (1908-1919) and Prevost Vedrines Smith (1913–1991) aka Prevost Floyd Smith. In 1919 at age 11, Sylvester was tragically killed by a car in Chicago. With the help of Hilder and Frank Shaw, Floyd built his own airplane and soloed it 1 Jun 1912. After the Sylvesters, in 1915, Floyd Smith worked for Glenn L. Martin Company as a mechanic and test pilot. He then started the Floyd Smith Aerial Equipment Company as its founder. Recruited for the US Army parachute design team at McCook Field, Smith entered his own design into the Army's best parachute competition enlisting a dress making company, the Mitchell Brothers of Chicago, to manufacture test chutes. In the 1920s working with Switlik Parachute Company of

Trenton, New Jersey Trenton is the capital city of the U.S. state of New Jersey and the county seat of Mercer County. It was the capital of the United States from November 1 to December 24, 1784. In 1930, the family was living in

Morrisville, Bucks County, Pennsylvania Morrisville (, ) is a borough in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is located just below the falls of the Delaware River opposite Trenton, New Jersey. The population was 8,728 at the 2010 census. Morrisville is located southeast o ...

, and Floyd worked as an engineer. In 1938, Smith helped start and run the Pioneer Parachute Company of Manchester, Connecticut, working as vice president and chief engineer. Due to WWII shortages, nylon replaced silk for the main chute. Adeline Gray made a demonstration jump to prove to the Army that it worked. By 1942, Pioneer was the largest producer of nylon parachutes in the world. At the peak, 3,000 employees made 300 parachutes each day, making Pioneer one of the largest suppliers for American servicemen who jumped behind enemy lines on D-Day. After working several years together at Pioneer, in 1947, Floyd and son Prevost Smith founded the Smith Parachute Company, at

Gillespie Field Gillespie Field is a county-owned public towered airport northeast of downtown San Diego, in El Cajon, San Diego County, California, United States. History : ''Section reference dates.'' In 1942 the United States Marine Corps chose a site wi ...

in San Diego. After Floyd's passing in 1956, and the company renamed Prevost F. Smith Parachute Company continued to innovate parachute design and manufacturing. Prevost Smith made chutes for astronauts, military weapons drops, the US Navy, the USAF, and large defense contractors. Floyd died on April 18, 1956 in

San Diego, California San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United Stat ...

of cancer. He is buried in the

Portal of Folded Wings Shrine to Aviation The Portal of the Folded Wings Shrine to Aviation is in Los Angeles, California. The shrine is a structure of marble, mosaic, and sculpted figures and is the burial site for fifteen pioneers of aviation. Designed by Kenneth A. MacDonald Jr. an ...

. In 2009, Floyd Smith was awarded the Parachute Industry Association's Don Beck Memorial Achievement Award.

Patent

In April 1914, after his wife Hilder's near fatal static line jump, Smith worked to improve parachute design. A

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A ...

, assigned to the Floyd Smith Aerial Equipment Company of

, was filed on July 27, 1918 and issued May 18, 1920 for Smith's

parachute A parachute is a device used to slow the motion of an object through an atmosphere by creating drag or, in a ram-air parachute, aerodynamic lift. A major application is to support people, for recreation or as a safety device for aviators, w ...

. In September 1918, General Billy Mitchell directed that a team evaluate available parachutes and identify the best chute. Mitchell picked Glenn Martin test pilot and former flying circus daredevil Floyd Smith. Smith added motor mechanic Guy Ball to his two-man team. After the WWI Armistice, Smith's team came under command of Major E.L. Hoffman who added several other civilians including: Floyd Smith, Guy Ball, show-jumper Harry Eibe, Army parachutist Ralph Bottreil, engineers James Russell and Jimmy Higgins. The newly reorganized team tested 17 parachute designs including: static line designs of Broadwick, Stevens, Ors, Kiefer Kline, Otto Heinecke, Leslie Irvin, Omaha Tent Company, and Floyd Smith. The first tests, using dummies, favored Floyd Smith's parachute design. This winning design was further developed and merged key features into the "Type A" parachute: a soft pack worn on the back; a rip cord to deploy the parachute; and a spring-assisted pilot chute to aid in main parachute deployment. Conservative Major Hoffman and others believed the free-fall was dangerous and that a jumper might blackout before pulling the ripcord. Aerial circus jumpers Floyd Smith and Leslie Irvin convinced Hoffman to test the Type A with Irvin volunteering to jump and Smith piloting the test. On 28 April 1919 using the "Type A" 28-foot backpack parachute, volunteer Leslie Irvin, flying in a Smith piloted

de Havilland DH9 The Airco DH.9 (from de Havilland 9) – also known after 1920 as the de Havilland DH.9 – was a British single-engined biplane bomber developed and deployed during the First World War. The DH.9 was a development of Airco's earlier successfu ...

biplane A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two main wings stacked one above the other. The first powered, controlled aeroplane to fly, the Wright Flyer, used a biplane wing arrangement, as did many aircraft in the early years of aviation. While a ...

at 100 mph and 1500 feet above the ground, jumped (with a backup chute strapped to his chest) and manually pulled the ripcord fully deploying his chute at 1000 feet. Irvin became the first American to jump from an airplane and manually open a parachute in midair. Floyd Smith filed the Type A patent No. 1,462,456 on the same day. The Parachute Board determined the backpack chute was crowding the cockpit, a redesign moved the parachute down the pilots back becoming the "seat style" chute. The McCook Field team tested the Type A parachute with over 1000 jumps. These successful tests resulted in the Army requiring parachute use on all Air Service flights. An early brochure of the Irving Air Chute Company credits William O'Connor 24 August 1920 at McCook Field as the first person to be saved by an Irving parachute, yet this was unrecognized. On 20 October 1922, Lieutenant

Harold R. Harris Harold Ross Harris (December 20, 1895 – July 28, 1988) was a notable American test pilot and U.S. Army Air Force officer who held 26 flying records. He made the first flight by American pilots over the Alps from Italy to France, successfull ...

, chief of the McCook Field Flying Station, jumped from a disabled

Loening Loening Aeronautical Engineering Corporation was founded 1917 by Grover Loening and Henry M. Crane produced early aircraft and amphibious aircraft beginning in 1917. When it merged with Keystone Aircraft Corporation in 1928, some of its engineer ...

PW-2A high wing monoplane fighter. Harris' lifesaving chute was mounted on the wall of McCook's parachute lab where the ''

Dayton Herald The ''Dayton Daily News'' (''DDN'') is a daily newspaper published in Dayton, Ohio, United States. It is owned by Cox Enterprises, Inc., a privately held global conglomerate headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, with approximatel ...

's'' aviation editor Maurice Hutton and photographer Verne Timmerman, predicting more jumps in future, suggested that a club should be formed. Two years later, Irvin's company instituted the

Caterpillar Club The Caterpillar Club is an informal association of people who have successfully used a parachute to bail out of a disabled aircraft. After authentication by the parachute maker, applicants receive a membership certificate and a distinctive lapel ...

, awarding a gold pin to pilots who successfully bailed out of disabled aircraft using an Irving parachute.Irvin GQ History - Accessed 28 Jan 2011
The Switlik Parachute Company of Trenton, New Jersey issued both gold and silver caterpillar pins. FSmithTypeA

After Major Hoffman wrote the US Army specifications for the Type A parachute, the Army Air Service placed an order for 300 parachutes from the lowest bidder; Irvin's Irving Air Chute Company. After Irvin lost a patient dispute to Floyd Smith with zero compensation due to US Army parachute orders, the US Government compensated Smith with $3500 to transfer his patient to Irvin's company. Floyd's original 1919 ripcord parachute is on display at the Air Force Museum at Dayton, Ohio. Smith was issued a total of 33 patients.

References

Sources

* Los Angeles Tribune; March 20, 1915; "Bird-Baby" Flies 21 Miles Gazes Down 4500 Ft. on City.

Bibliography

External links