Adeline Gray

June 6, 1942 - It was on this day that a 24-year-old woman from Oxford, Connecticut made the first jump from an airplane using a nylon parachute.

The leap was a test of a new lightweight material developed by Dupont that would soon replace the heavier and more expensive silk chutes that were in use.

The nylon parachutes had been tested with dummies (and probably animals, too) but this was the first jump with a live human.

As World War II heated up, Adeline Gray's successful landing paved the way for a massive rollout of the cheaper, stronger and more durable nylon chutes that would figure prominently in the Allied liberation of Europe.