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HISTORY
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Skydiving recorded
history goes
back to at least the 12th Century when Chinese thrill seekers jumped
off cliffs with umbrella-like devices. Then in the fifteenth
century, Leonardo da Vinci designed a parachute which he dropped
from the leaning tower of Pisa.
The first known jump from an
aircraft in flight was in 1797 when a Frenchman jumped from a hot
air balloon over Paris. But it wasn't really a sport until there
were airplanes. And it didn't take long after Orville Wright flew
the first one that people started jumping out of them at carnivals
and air shows.
The real boost to the sport came following
World War II, when a handful of pioneers brought the airborne
experience to the general public. Who were these pioneers? In the
U.S. it was Lewis Sanborn and a handful of others whose tales are
part of skydiving folklore.
In 1981, then U.S. Parachute Association
executive director Bill Ottley had a vision: establish a
not-for-profit association to build a museum. It was incorporated as
the American Museum of Sport Parachuting and Air Safety. The
Parachute Industry Association quickly joined forces and has been a
leading supporter of the project ever since.
While early
progress was slow, momentum grew in the late nineties as pioneers
began to fade away and the risk of losing
history became
ever more ominous. At the same time, USPA was running out of room
for its headquarters. The timing was auspicious for both USPA and
AMSPAS. Both had a need for a new facility, so why not build them
together?
In 2002, USPA and AMSPAS bought adjacent acreage
along Interstate 95 near Fredericksburg, Virginia, made possible by
a very generous grant by landowner W.J. Vakos Company for the
Museum. The USPA
Headquarters building was dedicated May 15, 2006. The Museum is
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The
National Skydiving Museum
5401 Southpoint Centre Blvd.
Fredericksburg, VA
22407
Phone: 540-604-9745
Fax:
540-604-9741 |
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