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EXPLORATIONS -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America.

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Members of the US Army Golden Knights parachute team at a performance in North Carolina

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to jump out of an airplane with only a large round piece of material to keep you safe? Well, today, you will find out. I'm Shirley Griffith. Ray Freeman and I will describe the activity known as sport parachuting.

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VOICE TWO:

Excitement fills the early morning air as you arrive at the little airport for your lesson in sport parachuting. First you learn to recognize and name each part of the parachute. You also learn what each part does.

The excitement builds as your teacher describes each step of the jump from take-off to landing. He tells you what to do in an emergency. Again and again, he explains the need for safety.

By early afternoon, you have completed the schoolwork. Now it is time for your first jump. As you put on the equipment, you probably begin to think: Do I really want to do this? You are excited, of course, but a little afraid, too.

VOICE ONE:

The teacher inspects your equipment. Nothing is loose. Nothing is broken. He asks you questions about safety. Finally, he smiles and says you are ready.

Then you, two other students and the teacher climb into a small airplane. The pilot makes sure everyone is sitting down and that no one else is outside near the plane. The plane's engine starts. The pilot moves the plane to the end of the runway. Moments later, you are climbing into the sky.

The door of the plane has been taken off so you can get out more easily with all the parachute equipment. Without the door, the engine noise and the wind are very loud. Talking is almost impossible. So you sit there and think about everything you have learned. You go over each step for a successful and safe jump. You try to put the fear out of your mind.

While you are thinking, your teacher and the pilot are working. The teacher leans out the door, watching the ground far below. With one hand he points toward a spot in the sky above your landing area. When the teacher is satisfied that the plane is flying toward the right place, he shouts:

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Jump-run!

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This means you are getting close to the jump area. When the plane reaches it, your teacher tells the pilot:

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Cut the engine!

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The pilot slows the plane's engine. Then the teacher points at you, and says:

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Sit in the door!

VOICE ONE:

Still fighting your fear, you sit in the doorway, with your legs outside the airplane. Then, you get the next command:

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Climb out!

VOICE ONE:

You reach out and hold the wing support. When you have a good, tight hold with both hands, you slide out of the plane using its wheel as a step. When you reach the right position, you step off the wheel.

Hanging by your hands, you look at your teacher and nod your head. You are ready and waiting for his final command. You look down at the ground, nine hundred meters below your feet. The wind from the plane's propeller feels heavy against your chest.

Then your teacher shouts:

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Go!

VOICE ONE:

You let go of the wing support and fall away from the plane. You throw your head back, arms out, legs apart, as you learned. You fall face forward toward the Earth below.

The sound of the engine and the scream of the wind disappear immediately. There is only silence. You feel you are moving, but not falling.

Quickly, a line tied to the plane pulls the parachute from its pack. The lines of the parachute and the stiff straps of the parachute harness gently pull on your shoulders and legs.

You look up. The big, colorful parachute is now fully open above you. You look at it carefully to make sure it is not damaged. Reaching over your head, you hold the left and right steering lines. You pull the left one and begin a slow, smooth turn to the left.

VOICE TWO:

You still have no feeling of falling. You seem to hang in the air. There is no longer any feeling of fear. Yet your heart is racing with excitement. You look around. You can see for many kilometers. You look down between your feet. You can see people, cars and buildings. They look very small.

For a few moments, you enjoy the view and the silence of your first parachute jump.

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VOICE ONE:

Too soon, it seems, it is time to prepare for landing. You watch the landing area and move toward it by pulling on the left or right steering lines. You aim for the soft sand in the center of the landing place.

Suddenly, the ground is moving quickly toward you. You bring your feet together and bend your legs at the knee. You reach high into the straps above your head. You keep your eyes straight ahead. You hit the ground, gently, it seems. And, as you learned, you roll on your side to the left and come back up onto your feet.

You gather up your parachute, being careful not to cross the many lines. Your first sport parachute jump has been safe, successful and great fun.

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VOICE TWO:

The idea of the parachute is almost as old as man's dreams of flight. The first known parachute designs were drawn by Italian artist and inventor Leonardo Da Vinci as early as fourteen ninety-five. However, there is no evidence that Da Vinci ever built a parachute.

About two hundred years ago, Louis-Sebastian Lenormand of France invented a kind of parachute to save people at the top of tall burning buildings. Historians say he jumped safely from a building in Montpellier, France, using his small device.

The first man to use a real parachute was Andre-Jacques Garnerin. In seventeen ninety-seven, he parachuted from a balloon six hundred meters above the city of Paris.

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There were more and more parachute designs after the invention of the airplane. Early planes often crashed. Fliers needed a safety device that would let them escape from a falling plane. Parachutes saved many of their lives.

Parachutes became so dependable that military leaders believed they could be used to get soldiers to a battlefield quickly. American General Billy Mitchell tested the idea in nineteen twenty-eight. Six soldiers jumped by parachute from an airplane. When they landed, they set up a machine gun. The test was a complete success. And the parachute became a useful military tool.

In the past thirty years, parachuting has become an exciting sport. It became popular when young men who learned to parachute in the military wanted to continue jumping when they returned to civilian life. Today, parachuting is enjoyed by men and women, young and old.

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VOICE TWO:

There are many kinds of sport parachuting. One of the most interesting is skydiving.

Jumpers leave the airplane as it flies more than three thousand meters above the ground. They fall for about one minute before opening their parachute. They use their bodies, and the air that rushes past them, to control their flight while falling. They can speed up or slow down. They can turn left or right. They can turn over completely.

People who like to skydive say they can do anything an airplane can do, except go up. Those who jump say skydiving is as close as man will ever come to free flight -- like that of birds.

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Today's parachutes are very different from the device Leonardo Da Vinci designed five hundred years ago. They come in many different shapes and colors.

One of the most popular is shaped more like a rectangle than the traditional circle of old parachutes. This one works much like a jet airplane. It forces the air that passes through it to the back. Large openings in the back can be opened or closed to steer it.

Some of the most modern kinds of parachutes give jumpers much more control over where they float. Jumpers can fall gently down. Or they can travel forward, while falling, at speeds of forty kilometers an hour.

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VOICE TWO:

You have been listening to the Special English program, EXPLORATIONS. Your narrators were Shirley Griffith and Ray Freeman. Our program was written and produced by Paul Thompson.

Listen again next week at this time for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America.