A canopy formation is a formation built by parachutists by flying their

parachute A parachute is a device designed to slow an object's descent through an atmosphere by creating Drag (physics), drag or aerodynamic Lift (force), lift. It is primarily used to safely support people exiting aircraft at height, but also serves va ...

s in proximity to each other and then taking grips ("docking") on other jumpers' parachutes. The practice of building such formations is officially known as ''canopy formations'' (CF). Former terms are ''canopy formation skydiving'' (CFS) or ''canopy relative work'' (CRW or CReW). In 2012, an eleven-member team of the

Indian Air Force The Indian Air Force (IAF) (ISO 15919, ISO: ) is the air force, air arm of the Indian Armed Forces. Its primary mission is to secure Indian airspace and to conduct aerial warfare during armed conflicts. It was officially established on 8 Octob ...

achieved a canopy formation involving all members of the team. In November 2007, a 100-person was performed over

Lake Wales, Florida Lake Wales is a city in Polk County, Florida, United States. It is part of the Lakeland-Winter Haven, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 16,361 at the 2020 census. History Early history A survey by W.A. Williams and J. ...

. To date, this is the largest such formation ever achieved and recognised as an official

F%C3%A9d%C3%A9ration A%C3%A9ronautique Internationale The World Air Sports Federation (; FAI) is the world governing body for air sports, and also stewards definitions regarding human spaceflight. It was founded on 14 October 1905, and is headquartered in Lausanne, Switzerland. It maintains worl ...

(FAI) World Record. The current FAI European record is a 30-parachute formation built in 2018 in Teuge in the Netherlands "A 100-way diamond!"
CFworlrecord.com, retrieved June 11, 2014

References

Parachuting {{Air-sports-stub

See also

References