Who’s the Lexington native who made it possible for people to jump safely from airplanes?
Editor’s Note: As Lexington celebrates the 250th anniversary of its founding, the Herald-Leader and kentucky.com each day throughout 2025 will share interesting facts about our hometown. Compiled by Liz Carey, all are notable moments in the city’s history - some funny, some sad, others heartbreaking or celebratory, and some just downright strange.
Solomon Van Meter, born on April 8, 1888, in a cabin on Bryan Station Pike, was the inventor of the parachute.
The Van Meter family eventually lived in Shenandoah Hall on Bryan Station Pike, but he was born in the cabin behind it.
His parents, Solomon Lee Van Meter and Evaline “Evie” Swoope, raised him, his four siblings, and his two half-siblings there. Van Meter went to school at Miss Collier’s Private School before moving on to Transylvania University, the University of Iowa and Exeter College at Oxford University in Oxford, England.
In 1910, Van Meter invented the first manually operated free-fall parachute and filed for a patent for it a year later. In 1916, he was granted patents for “inventions for saving the lives of aviators by the use of parachutes.”
A year after that, Van Meter joined the U.S. Army during the tail end of World War I and rose to the rank of first lieutenant. In 1918, his invention was built at Wright Field.
After a few successful tests, the U.S. Army allowed the Irving Air Chute Company to build the parachutes for government use. Van Meter was by that time assigned to McCook Field in Dayton, Ohio, where he was tasked with improving his invention.
In 1926, he tested it himself at West Point Academy.
Interestingly, Van Meter sued the U.S. Army Air Service for not paying him for his device. Since Van Meter entered the military after the patent was awarded, he couldn’t sue the U.S. in the Court of Claims without resigning. Congress passed a special act later allowing Van Meter to sue for compensation due to the unauthorized use of his patented invention by the military.
The District Court found that the patent had been infringed and awarded Van Meter $46,137.50 in compensation (about $650,000 today).
Van Meter retired from the military as a captain. He died in Lexington on Nov. 3, 1937, at the age of 49, and is buried in Lexington Cemetery.
A monument to him, a life-sized bronze portrait, is located at the Aviation Museum of Kentucky at the Blue Grass Airport.
Have a question or story idea related to Lexington’s 250-year history? Let us know at 250LexKy@gmail.com.