Gleb Yevgeniyevich Kotelnikov (Russian: Глеб Евгеньевич Котельников, – November 22, 1944), was the Russian-Soviet inventor of the knapsack parachute (first in the hard casing and then in the soft pack), and braking parachute. Early life He was born in the family of a professor of mechanics and higher mathematics. Parents were fond of theater, and this hobby influenced their son. From childhood he sang, played the violin, and also liked to make different toys and models. He graduated from the Kiev Military School in 1894. After three years of compulsory service, he went into the reserve. He served as an excise official in the provinces, helped organize drama circles, sometimes played in plays, and he continued to design. In 1910, Gleb returned to St Petersburg and became an actor in the troupe of the People's House on the Petersburg side (the pseudonym of Glebov-Kotelnikov). Professional career In 1911, he created his first parachute RK-1 (which stands for Rantseviy (knapsack) or Russian Kotelnikova (by Kotelnikov), 1st model), that was successfully employed in 1914 during World War I. Later on, Kotelnikov significantly improved the design of his parachute, creating new models, including RK-2 with a softer knapsack, RK-3, and a few cargo parachutes, all of which would be adopted by the Soviet Air Force. Having witnessed the death of a talented Russian pilot Lev Matsivich and been shocked by it, he became obsessed with the idea of constructing a parachute, to which he devoted several years of his life as well as all his personal savings. In 1911 he applied for a patent to the Committee on Inventions in France and was granted the patent under the number 438612, in which he summarized the function of his parachute: The working principle of the apparatus is as follows: in case of an emergency, a pilot, wearing it on his back, could throw himself out of an aircraft, opening a knapsack by pulling a cord attached to its lock. In case of an unexpected fall the device can work quite automatically. For that purpose the lock of the parapack is connected with a carriage of an aircraft by means of a cord which would open the lock of a parapack being stretched under the weight of a falling man. At first G.Kotelnikov called his invention a safety apparatus, a knapsack-parachute and later on it got the name of RK-1. In 1912, on a road