From Lee Guifoyle's collection
Tiny Broadwick became the first woman to parachute from a plane. Originally named Georgia Ann Thompson, she was fascinated when, shortly after her 15th birthday in 1908, she saw Charles Broadwick parachute from a balloon during a carnival's visit to Raleigh, North Carolina. With her mother's permission, she joined the act and Broadwick later adopted her. Known as Tiny because she was only 4 feet tall and weighed less than 90 pounds, she made more than 600 jumps from balloons and airplanes from 1908 through 1916. Her first jump from a plane was on June 21, 1913, in Los Angeles. The following year, she demonstrated Broadwick's parachute pack for the U. S. Army's Aviation Bureau. The experts were reportedly impressed by her performance, but they saw little practical value in the parachute.
Tiny Broadwick is also credited with the first free fall, which came about by accident. On one of her jumps, the chute's static line got entangled in the plane's undercarriage. She cut the line free, jumped clear of the plane, and then pulled on the line to open the canopy
