On 25th August 1914, the Slovak constructor Štefan Banič was awarded the first U.S. Patent(No. 1,108,484) for inventing a parachute. He donated his patent rights to the newly formed Army Signal Corps and to the American Society for the Promotion of Aviation.
In gratitude he was made an honorary member of the Army Air Corps (now Air Force) and the Society. Banič came to America in 1907 and settled in the community of Greenville, Pennsylvania. He worked as a coal miner, stone mason and as an employee of the Chicago Bridge and Iron Company; moreover he also attended technical school at night.
Zuzana Botíková
