Editing Drop zone (section)

== History ==
[[File:Defense.gov photo essay 071208-F-5888B-041.jpg|thumb|U.S. Army paratroopers with the 82nd Airborne Division parachute from a C-130 Hercules aircraft during Operation Toy Drop 2007 at [[Pope Air Force Base]]]]

The concept of a drop zone became relevant alongside the emerging relevance of parachuting, which had only begun taking place in the late eighteenth century.<ref name=":0">{{Citation|last=LAURENDEAU|first=Jason LaurendeauJason|editor1-first=David|editor1-last=Levinson|editor2-first=Gertrud|editor2-last=Pfister|title=Skydiving and Skysurfing|date=2016-08-18|url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780190622695.001.0001/acref-9780190622695-e-248|encyclopedia=Berkshire Encyclopedia of World Sport|publisher=Berkshire Publishing Group|language=en|doi=10.1093/acref/9780190622695.001.0001|isbn=978-1-933782-67-6|access-date=2020-11-23|url-access=subscription}}</ref> The first parachuting jump from an aircraft occurred in 1797 when Andre Jacques Garnerin descended above Paris landing in Parc Monceau, which then makes it the very first appointed drop zone. More specifically, the area where Garnerin landed is said to have been surrounded by a crowd, which means that the boundaries of the drop zone at Parc Monceau are marked by the surrounding crowd. After Garnerin’s jump, the idea of parachute jumping was abandoned due to the impractical nature of parachute design, until the idea became more popular with the increasing demands from entertainment-seeking public and the military.<ref name=":0" /> The beginning of World War I had made significant contribution to the development of parachuting due to the high demands from the military which influenced the increasing production and technological development of parachute design<ref name=":0" />

Furthermore, the developments in aircraft design made the application of parachuting more feasible by improving the ease of personnel transportation allowing for the implementation of paratroopers – military parachutists. Paratroopers would conduct surprise attacks and seize military objectives, which meant that paratroopers were assigned or would choose drop zones that were less predictable and more extreme than what would usually be accepted by recreational parachutists. For example, during the Battle of Crete in 1941 the Germans deployed many paratroopers to seize Allied territory by establishing an airhead (a kind of drop zone which is used to receive allied reinforcements while defended in a threatened territory), which proved to the Allies the effectiveness of military parachuting.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2003-12-23|title=airhead|url=http://www.dtic.mil/doctrine/jel/doddict/data/a/00208.html|access-date=2020-11-23|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20031223154658/http://www.dtic.mil/doctrine/jel/doddict/data/a/00208.html|archive-date=2003-12-23}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=The Battle for Crete - The Battle for Crete {{!}} NZHistory, New Zealand history online|url=https://nzhistory.govt.nz/war/the-battle-for-crete|access-date=2020-11-23|website=nzhistory.govt.nz}}</ref> Post-World War II, parachuting continued to see development in military and recreational directions which led to the broadening of the definition of a drop zone now allowing for any place for skydiving to be called a drop zone (DZ)<ref name=":0" />

[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 141-0864, Kreta, Landung von Fallschirmjägern.jpg|thumb|251x251px|German paratroopers (''[[Fallschirmjäger (Nazi Germany)|Fallschirmjäger]]'') landing on Crete, May 1941]]