These claims were not borne out in fact, but they stimulated an interest in the possibilities of mechanical flight, and in the parachute, which had never come into popular favor despite its successful use by the inventor, Garnerin. Hopes were again entertained that a modification of this device might be utilized in solving the problem of aerial flight, and in 1837 an aeronaut, Henry Cocking, invented a new type in which he proposed to descend from a balloon. The parachute of Garnerin, as we know, had been constructed like a huge umbrella, whereas Cocking's parachute had the general appearance of an umbrella held upside down. An unusual interest was aroused in the prospective experiment from the fact that a great majority of scientists did not consider that this parachute was constructed on correct scientific principles, and predicted that the aeronaut would be killed when he attempted to use it. Before the day of the trial arrived numerous articles had been published, presenting arguments for and against Cocking's device, and on the very day itself one of the newspapers contained a long article by a leading authority on aerostatics, reviewing the numerous reasons why the attempt would surely prove a failure.
Despite the protests of the majority of interested persons, however, Cocking and a companion named Green made the ascent at the appointed time. After rising to a certain height the parachute was cast off, the parachute's car containing the inventor, while Green remained in the balloon. Instead of sailing slowly toward the earth, however, the parachute fell rapidly, with an oscillating movement, gaining speed and jerking violently as it descended, until finally when several hundred feet in the air, Cocking was thrown from the car and dashed to pieces, while the wreck of the parachute landed a few yards away. Thus the predictions of the majority came true, although as we know now, the cause of the tragedy was due to faulty material rather than the design of the machine. For the American aeronaut, Wise, demonstrated a little later that parachutes built on the same principle as that of Cocking could be used successfully.
As we have seen, most of the flying-machines attempted heretofore took for their model the bird with flapping wings. There were certain persons, however, who had observed that this flapping movement was not essential to flight--that certain large-winged birds, such as buzzards and hawks, were able to soar in any direction at will, holding their wings rigidly. It was evident, therefore, that shape, position, and construction of the bird's wing played quite as important a part as the flapping movement. The lifting power of plane surfaces, or aeroplanes, was also carefully studied in this connection and in 1842 the inventor, Henson, constructed a flying-machine utilizing this aeroplane principle, his machine having thin, fixed surfaces, slightly inclined to the line of motion, and supported by the upward pressure of the air due to the forward movement.