This Week in Outdoor History: First Parachute Jump & Animal in Space

Filed in archive Aviation History on October 30, 2007

This week in aviation history features the first person to land a plane at the South Pole and the first animal in space.

October 22, 1797: Andre-Jacques Garnerin made the first parachute jump from a balloon.
French aeronaut, the first person to use a parachute regularly and successfully. He perfected the parachute and made jumps from greater altitudes than had been possible before.

October 31, 1956: Rear Admiral G. J. Dufek became the first person to land an airplane at the South Pole.
Seven Navy men landed in an R4D Skytrain on the ice at the South Pole-the first to stand at the spot since Capt. Robert F. Scott of the Royal Navy reached it in January 1912. The seven men were: Rear Admiral G. J. Dufek, CTF 43 and ComNavSupFor, Antarctica, Captain D. L. Cordiner, C.O., Air Development Squadron 6, Captain Wm. M. Hawkes, co-pilot, Lieutenant Commander C. S. Shinn, pilot, Lieutenant John Swadener, navigator, J. P. Strider, AD2, crew chief, and William Cumbie, AT2, radioman. The party remained at the pole for 49 minutes setting up navigational aids to assist the future delivery of materials and equipment for constructing a scientific observation station at the South Pole.

November 2, 1947: Howard Hughes flew the Spruce Goose on its first and only flight.

The Spruce Goose was originally conceived by Henry J. Kaiser, a steel maker and builder of Liberty ships. The aircraft was designed, constructed, and engineered by Howard Hughes and his staff. The Spruce Goose's exterior was created with material using the duramold process of laminating plywood and it was the largest plane ever to fly. In 1947, Millionaire Howard Hughes became the first person to pilot the Spruce Goose.

November 3, 1957: The Soviet Union sent the first animal, a dog named Laika, into space aboard the Sputnik II. Laika died in orbit.

Fifty years ago Saturday, a perky-eared mutt named Laika, scooped up from the streets of Moscow, became the first earthling to breach our planet's atmosphere and enter space. It was a short and painful voyage for the docile little stray, which died within hours after launch, but a crowning coup for the Soviet Union.