What is the lowest parachute jump ever recorded, Civil or Military.?

Question

How low an altitude can some one jump out of an airborne aircraft? An old soldier freind of mine claimed they jumped at under 100ft, During the war. I cant find any records of parachute jumps under 100ft. Are they any?

Answer 1

I can see how 100’ can be done, but not with a standard military jump setup. The setup for most military jumps is to have a tether line attached inside the plane. Once the jumper reaches the end of the tether, his release is pulled and the chute opens. This system would not allow sufficient time for the chute to open.

The way it COULD work would be similar to the way the Air Force drops heavy cargo while flying just off the ground. If a jumper were to stand at the back of a rear opening cargo plane with his pilot chute in hand, he could release the pilot chute into the air stream. This would open the main chute and literally YANK the jumper out the back of the plane. It would not be a pleasant ride, but theoretically it would allow a person to slow sufficiently to survive a landing if this was done from 100'

Calnickel is correct in that these types of “records” are generally not recorded officially.

Good luck.

Answer 2

As a former C-130 Crew Chief, let me first say that I agree with R_Sharp. The differences between a Static Line and a Tether are so miniscule, it is not worth mentioning. As for the fact that they quit using LAPES, I didn’t even know that because I’ve been out of the air force since “88” and I had no reason to keep up to date on what they did and did not continue using. Even more important, the fact they discontinued it is a moot point. Loosen up stromw and please quit trying to discredit a great answer.

More to the point, I can’t think of any other way of doing it other than the way R_Sharp described it unless it was some fluke like the guy topguntony mentions. I’ve heard that story before too and strange things do happen.

Laidback, I’ll let you make the call on the zero-zero seats.

Answer 3

The lowest recorded jump ever was zero feet and it has been done several times. The ejection seats used today are called zero-zero seats, meaning they require zero feet and zero airspeed to work. As far as a regular jump, the minimum for a C-130 static line jump is 800 feet. The static line pulls the ripcord as the jumper exits the plane, not on a tether away from the plane as R_Sharp says. The minimum for C-130 free-fall is 2000 feet. This, obviously, the jumper jumps and then pulls his own ripcord.
As a side, note, the military no longer does LAPES as R_Sharp says. It was discontinued in the mid 90s because it is too dangerous.

Answer 4

Its one of those things like the yougest person ever to solo a plane. It isn't recorded to discourage people from attempting it.

I did read a story of a rear gunner in a Lancaster that fell 22,000 feet with NO parachute and survived by landing in a snow drift. The Germans even verified and certified it.

Answer 5

Free Fall, I dobut it. But many ejection seat jumps have been made from ground or ship deck. The seat will shoot out a 100ft, and then deploy the chute.

Answer 6

I read about a British pilot tht bailed out at 300ft. from his doomed spitfire, chute barely opened got hurt but no broken bones.
Another interesting occurance when a B-17 was hit by flak at alltitude it blew the tail off with the gunner inside he survived a fall from 30,000 ft. and survived German officer had 2 Begians cut him out.

Answer 7

I used to skydive, but don't know, that's an interesting question, I can tell u other stories, but there are all sorts of skydiving clubs call or email them with the question.

Answer 8

You don't say "...out of an airborne aircraft and survive". Did you mean to?

Answer 9

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