Captain Albert Berry is one of two people credited as the first person to make a successful parachute

Parachute

A parachute is a device used to slow the motion of an object through an atmosphere by creating drag, or in the case of ram-air parachutes, aerodynamic lift. Parachutes are usually made out of light, strong cloth, originally silk, now most commonly nylon...

 jump from a powered aeroplane. The other contender is Grant Morton

Grant Morton

Grant Morton is one of the first people to successfully attempt skydiving, and is sometimes credited with the first skydive, in 1911. Supposedly, at age 54, Morton, a veteran parachutist, made the first dive by jumping from a Wright Model B over Venice, California.-References:...

, who is reported to have jumped from a Wright Model B

Wright Model B

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 flying over Venice Beach, California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

 sometime late in 1911. Morton's pilot was Phil Parmalee.

On 1 March 1912, Berry jumped from a Benoist pusher biplane

Biplane

A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two superimposed main wings. The Wright brothers' Wright Flyer used a biplane design, as did most aircraft in the early years of aviation. While a biplane wing structure has a structural advantage, it produces more drag than a similar monoplane wing...

 from 1,500 feet (457 m) and landed successfully at Jefferson Barracks, Missouri

Missouri

Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...

. The pilot was Tony Jannus

Tony Jannus

Antony Habersack Jannus, more familiarly known as Tony Jannus , was an early American pilot whose aerial exploits were widely publicized in aviation's pre-World War I period. He flew the first airplane from which a parachute jump was made, in 1912. Jannus was also the first airline pilot, having...

. The 36 foot (11 m) diameter parachute was contained in a metal canister attached to the underside of the plane - when Berry dropped from the plane his weight pulled the parachute from the canister. Rather than being attached to the parachute by a harness Berry was seated on a trapeze bar. According to Berry he dropped 500 feet (152 m) before the parachute opened.