How safe/controled are parachutes?, looknig for RL details to translate to the game. Options

[Snow_Fox]

They reported on the news that Bush the elder celebrated his 85th birthday by skydiving, again, and he already is planning to do it again when he's 90. It was a tandem jump when he is strapped to a guide but it still makes me ownder.

In the 1940's the parachutes looked much bigger and still did damage if you landed badly. In the 1990's I had a friend in the army who said in parachute training a man he knew broke both legs on a jump.

Today, not only do you see tandem jumps it seems like stunt diverts can actually land on their feet, runnig to break mommentum and not have to do the whole tuck and roll thing, so the question is, has the tech level really improved that much?