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The Parachute Jump is a defunct amusement ride in Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York, whose iconic open-frame steel structure remains a Brooklyn landmark. tall and weighing 170 tons (150 tonnes), it has been called the "Eiffel Tower of Brooklyn".〔 It was originally built for the 1939 New York World's Fair in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park, Queens, and moved to its current site, then part of the Steeplechase Park amusement park, in 1941. It is the only portion of Steeplechase Park still standing today. The ride ceased operations in 1964, when the park shut down for good. The ride was based on functional parachutes which were held open by metal rings throughout the ascent and descent. Twelve cantilevered steel arms sprout from the top of the tower, each of which supported a parachute attached to a lift rope and a set of surrounding guide cables. Riders were belted into a two-person canvas seat hanging below the closed chute, then hoisted to the top, where a release mechanism would drop them, the descent slowed only by the parachute. Shock absorbers at the bottom, consisting of pole-mounted springs, cushioned the landing. Each parachute required three cable operators, keeping labor expenses high.〔Kaufman, Seth (1993). (URL accessed May 4, 2006.) According to ''Coney Island:Lost and Found'', p. 275, Kaufman is a Coney Island historian and worked on a structural analysis of the Parachute Jump for his senior thesis at Cooper Union.〕 == Precursors == Stanley Switlik and George P. Putnam, Amelia Earhart's husband, built a tower on Stanley's farm in Ocean County, New Jersey, now the site of Six Flags Great Adventure. Designed to train airmen in parachute jumping, the first public jump from the tower was made by Ms. Earhart on June 2, 1935.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title= The History of CSPA )〕〔(First Parachute Training Tower )〕 The Parachute Drop was patented by retired U.S. Naval Commander James H. Strong and Stanley Switlik, who were inspired by primitive parachute practice towers he had seen in the Soviet Union.〔〔(Switlik and Strong patent )〕 The Soviet Union had been using simple wooden towers to train paratroopers since the 1920s, and despite the dangers of the Soviet design, which used just a single guide cable and sometimes found the jumper colliding with the structure, the towers were employed for recreational use as well. Strong designed a safer version which included eight guide wires in a circle surrounding the parachute. In 1936, Strong secured a U.S. patent for his design, and he built several test platforms at his home in Hightstown, New Jersey in 1936 and 1937. The military platforms suspended a single rider in a harness and offered a few seconds of freefall after the release at the top, before the chutes opened to slow the fall. Civilians showed a great deal of interest in trying out the ride for themselves, and Strong was quick to turn his invention to non-military use as well, making some design changes in the process: a seat that could hold two, a larger parachute for a slower drop, the metal ring which held the parachute permanently open, and shock-absorbing springs to ease the final landing. Strong sold military versions of the tower to the Romanian and U.S. militaries. He installed towers at a New Jersey training center, probably Fort Dix. Four were later installed in Fort Benning, Georgia. One was toppled in a 1954 tornado.〔U.S. Army Infantry, 11th Infantry Regiment, 1st Battalion (Airborne), 507th Infantry Airborne (Basic Airborne Course ). Accessed May 6, 2006.〕 Two appear to be in use.〔(Google Maps image of Ft. Benning towers ) Accessed May 6, 2006.〕 He also converted an existing observation tower in Chicago's Riverview Park into a six-chute amusement ride. This enterprise, the "Pair-O-Chutes", did brisk enough business to inspire Strong to apply to build and operate a jump at the 1939 New York World's Fair. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Parachute Jump」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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