Adrian Nicholas (4 March 1962 - 17 September 2005) was a British skydiver who completed more than 8,000 jumps in 30 countries.
He is best known for his successful test of Leonardo da Vinci's (1452–1519) parachute design, proving it to be in retrospective the world's first working parachute.[1] A modified pyramidal design was later also successfully tested by his Swiss colleague Olivier Vietti-Teppa.[2]
On 17 September 2005 he was jumping in Texel, Holland. While performing a high speed landing maneauvre, his automatic activation device fired at approximately 300 feet above the ground and deployed his reserve parachute. He attempted to correct the situation by releasing his main parachute, however, he still hit the ground hard enough that he died at the scene as a result of his injuries.