Charles Broadwick (born John Murray, 1870s–1943) was an American pioneering parachutist and inventor.
[1] Born in the 1870s as John Murray, Charles Broadwick grew up in Grand Rapids, Michigan in a poor family.
By the age of 16 Broadwick (using his new name) was performing at fairs and exhibitions, parachuting from underneath a hot air balloon.
She was either caught in ropes as the balloon rose and then fell[1] or she committed suicide in front of a crowd of 1,000 people.
When Broadwick jumped from the balloon, the static line drew taut, pulled the parachute from the pack, and then snapped.
[1] In 1908, after seeing Broadwick jump from a balloon at a fair in Raleigh, North Carolina, a 15-year-old single mother named Georgia "Tiny" Jacobs convinced him to allow her to join the performance.
[1] Advances in, and greater use of airplanes created new opportunities for parachutes, including saving people in disabled aircraft.
[2] Charles Broadwick's "coatpack" parachute caught the attention of businessman and aviation pioneer Glenn Martin.
Broadwick later clearly stated the packed parachute was his invention and described Martin taking credit as "simply an advertising matter."
[1] With the start of World War I, Broadwick saw great potential for his coatpack parachute, or "life preserver of the air."
For instance, using a static line connected to the plane to deploy the parachute, as was done with Charles Broadwick's coatpack, was not effective under some circumstances.
The Airplane Parachute Type-A was widely used and saved a number of people, including a young Charles Lindbergh.
[5] As the U.S. Army prepared itself for World War II, staff realized that to effectively drop paratroopers from a low altitude required a parachute that was opened by a static line, which would automatically open the parachute upon exiting the plane.
To quickly address the need, the Army turned to the World War I-era Broadwick parachutes it had acquired.