"I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth."

John F. Kennedy ~~~ May 25, 1961

Theodore "Red" Hulsizer worked at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base as a civilian from 1941 to 1973. He started as a leather and canvas worker doing detail work in the planes the "top brass" used during World War II. On January 9, 1949, he transferred to the parachute division as "Initial Parachute Manufacturer".  Click here to see his promotion notice. On March 19, 1950, he was redesignated as "Prototype Parachute Manufacturer".  Click here to see his Change In Designation notice.  When someone had a new design, the first parachute made was 1/12 scale, from 9 inches to 30 inches in diameter.  Red enjoyed making the small ones and no one else really did, so he made a lot of them.  When they were done testing them, he was allowed to keep them.  We verified this with the National Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton, Ohio back in 1998.  They cataloged them at the museum for two weeks, then curator Charles G. Wortman gave us this note when they returned them:

Red's collection of 31 model parachutes spans the early refinements of DaVinci's original design, drag chutes and ribbon chutes made from Nazi designs, early round controllable chutes, the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo missions and working with Domina Jalbert developing the first working model of the "Jalbert parafoil" (177.30).  The parafoil is considered to be the only revolutionary redesign of the parachute since DaVinci invented them.  Grandpa told me "that crazy kitemaker" was constantly looking over his shoulder and talking to him while he was making it. Domina knew it needed to be perfect and it is.  It was the model for the first large parafoil, which Red made for the U. S. Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. A video of Red & Bill holding the parafoil and Red saying it is the first working model parafoil ever made is on the Parachute History page.  Pictures of test flights of the first large parafoil made from this design are there, too.  We also have four Jalbert kites developed for an Air Force project on the east coast.

We have been told these could be worth millions.  Hard to believe, but it does make you dream a bit, which is why this site is a .org site.  Please see the Our Dream page for details.

We flew all of the parachutes in a "wind tunnel" on Friday, October 9, 2009 and the amazing pictures & videos are here on the Photos and Videos pages, with the full history of all the parachutes coming soon.  Enjoy your visit !!!

The Hulsizer Family

Theodore "Red" and Sarah Luella (Greene) Hulsizer