About the book: 1939 / From the preface of the USSR master of parachuting, order bearer A. Foteev: “The author of this book - Russian inventor Gleb Evgenievich Kotelnikov - first designed a backpack parachute of free and automatic action. <…> He created a parachute that even the best specialists abroad could not create. His life and his works are of interest not only to paratroopers of the Soviet Union, but also to Soviet children who love aviation and follow its successes. <…> In his book, Gleb Evgenievich tells Soviet children how people learned to build parachutes and fall to the ground with them. He also talks about how he created his parachute at a time when tsarist officials considered a parachute unnecessary and even harmful. In our country, thousands of people are now involved in parachuting, learning to use a parachute and jump with it. They know that a parachute is necessary both in the defense of our homeland and in their daily work. And to replace our parachutists, aircraft designers, and pilots, a new generation is growing up, which should know and respect the work of this self-taught designer, whose parachute was the basis for the best modern parachutes.” For middle and high school age. The original spelling has been preserved, with the exception of the writing of quotation marks. Styles were used to design captions under the pictures, so it is better to read using CR3 - V_E.