evening ring:
You invented the past tense.
On November 9, 1911, St. Petersburg theater actor Gleb Kotelnikov applied for a patent for the world's first backpack parachute. The retired artillery officer was never an inventor. But a year before his eyes, Captain Lev Matsiovich crashed during a demonstration flight.
The shock was so great that Kotelnikov decided to dramatically change his life. He had no idea what circles of bureaucratic hell he would have to go through.
Answer from the Chief Engineering Director of the Military Department:
The "escape pod" you invented does nothing to ensure the reliability of opening the parachute after it is thrown from the pod, and therefore cannot be accepted as a rescue device. The experiments you performed on the model cannot be considered convincing... ".
The head of the aeronautics school, General Kubenko, stuns the self-taught inventor even more: after the pilot jumps out of the plane and opens the parachute, his legs will be torn off the fool.
The inventor writes to the Minister of War: "Such conclusions seem at least strange and naive."
But what is the minister against the verdict of the Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich, who supervised the Imperial Air Force?
"Parachutes in aviation are generally a harmful thing, for pilots, at the slightest danger from the enemy, will escape by parachute, leaving their planes to die. Cars are more expensive than people. We import cars from abroad, so they need to be taken care of. But there will be people - not these, but others!
The stubborn Kolibin registered his parachute RK-1 (Russian Kotelnikov) on March 20, 1912. In France then the First World War began - and after the first tragic air battles, Russian officials immediately saw the light. Well, the designer Kotelnikov continued to improve his brainchild. In 1944 he was awarded the Order of the Red Star for outstanding services.