Did you know a dangerous World War II test jump was performed by someone with no parachute experience?

American physician William Randolph Lovelace II, serving in the Army Air Forces during World War II, was a pioneer of aviation medicine, and has invented a breathing mask that allowed pilots to survive high altitudes. He was so dedicated to his work that he was willing to risk his own life to see if completed: on one occasion, he tested his invention by jumping out of a plane at an altitude previously considered lethal. What’s even more amazing is that Lovelace was wholly untrained in parachute jumps: this was his maiden jump.
 
Lovelace had an interest in flying from an early age and managed to combine it with his medical practice in the Army Medical Corps Reserve. Ever-newer aircraft designs before and during World War II allowed crews to reach higher and higher altitudes, but high-altitude flights carried numerous health hazards because of the cold, the low air pressure and the lack of oxygen. In 1938, he co-invented a special high-altitude mask, the BLB mask (named after inventors Boothby, Lovelace and Bulbulian), which became an important piece of gear for both American and British air crews.

The BLB mask worked great for people inside a plane, but did nothing for those who had to bail out at high altitudes. By 1943, Lovelace came up with a solution: a mask attached to a small, lightweight oxygen tank that could be strapped to a jumper’s leg. The military establishment found the idea impractical, so Lovelace decided to prove its viability himself. He convinced a B-17 (The B-17 Flying Fortress) pilot to take him up to an altitude of 40,200 ft (12,000 m), an altitude which was considered lethal to parachutists. Once they reached the correct altitude, Lovelace jumped out wearing his invention, even though he had never performed a parachute jump in his life before.
 
The sudden shock of the automatically opening parachute ripped off one his gloves and knocked him unconscious. He regained consciousness at around 30,000 ft (9,000 m) and proceeded to survive the jump and touch down safely with only a frostbitten hand for an injury.

During the Cold War, Lovelace was appointed chairman of the Committee of Life Science at NASA, and was involved in testing astronaut candidates (and pilots for the U-2 spy planes). His own research suggested that women had the same potential as men, and even enjoyed a slight advantage as their smaller body size and lighter weight allowed them to get by on less oxygen and fewer calories. Acting on his own initiative, he assembled a group of 13 female candidates who became informally known as the Mercury 13, a play on the Mercury 7, the official all-male group of Mercury astronauts. In the end, the project got nowhere, as NASA, the political elite and a sexist society were not ready to accept women in such a role.