Saved By The Parachute

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 151, 27 June 1936, Page 7 (Supplement)

Saved By The Parachute

Extraordinary Escapes From Death.

NERVE-SHATTERING EXPERIENCES IN AIR.

INSTANCES of airmen saving their lives by parachuting from aeroplanes out of control occur with increasing frequency. These escapes from certain death serve to direct attention to the fact, that the lives of several thousands of airmen have been saved since the reliability of the safety parachute was first demonstrated by the French pilot, Adolphe Pergoud, who was the first pilot to fly his machine upside down, and the first to loop the loop. Pergoud lost his life in the Great War, being killed in an aerial combat with the enemy near Belford on August 29, 1915. It needs considerable nerve to jump from an aeroplane into space and trust to a parachute, whether the jump is made in training, or in deadly earnest from a machine which is out of control. Falling through space before the parechute opens provides a thrill, which makes some demands on the nerves; and there is always the possibility that the parachute will fail to open, and the airman will be killed. It is recorded that a British pilot, who in the course of his duty, took many airmen aloft for parachute training, could never be induced to make the leap himself, because he had so often witnessed the nervous tension portrayed in the faces of men who had jumped from his machine. Parachutes were used to a considerable extent during the war for the purpose of saving lives of the crews of observation balloons. When these balloons were attacked by enemy aircraft, or brought down by anti-aircraft guns, the crews descended safely by means of parachutes. More than 800 British airmen escaped death in this way, and only on three occasions did the parachute fail to open. The parachutes now used by the Royal Air Force in England cost about £60 each. They are tested to stand the strain of a body weighing 2001b, falling through the air at 400 miles per hour. The silk cover of the parachute is porous, so as to allow air to pass through the fabric. There are also outlets in the top to let the air through, and thereby help to steady the parachute in its descent. There is an interval of one and threefifth seconds between the time when an airman who has jumped from an aeroplane, pulls the rip cord of the parachute, and the moment when the parachute opens sufficiently to take his weight. In that interval the airman falls 33 feet. When the parachute opens his rate of descent is about 15 miles per hour.

When an aeroplane gets out of control or meets with an accident in the air, and the pilot decides to jump from it in order to save his life by means of the parachute which he carries strapped on his back, he has mueli more chance of escaping death if the aeroplane is at a good height when he jumps, than if it is close to the ground. He must get clear of the machine before he pulls the cord of the parachute, and in that interval he falls rapidly. Through some mischance the parachute may fail to open quickly, and in that case the airman, if close to the ground when he jumped from the aeroplane, may ba killed by the fall. . One R.A.F. pilot in England landed safely by parachute after jumping from an aeroplane at the low height of 150 feet. He was within 50 feet of the ground when his parachute functioned, and therefore escaped death by about one second. Falling Through the Air. A pilot without a parachute who jumps from an aeroplane that is_ falling earthwards at the rate of 200 mile 9 per hour continues to fall at that rate for a brief time, and then the rate of his descent decreases until it reaches 119 miles per hour. It seems almost incredible that his speed slackens in the air, but the fact that it does so lias been scientifically proved. "If he jumped nut at a height of four miles," writes Mr. David Master in his book "On the Wing," "he would start his fall at 145 miles per hour, owing to the lessened resistance of the rarified atmosphere, and gradually slow down as the air pressure increased, until he was dropping' at 119' miles per hoUi 1 . Then, however ' triildh *he he could not fall more rapidly, nor could he fall.at a slower rate —unless he used a parachute. Tests from 4000 feet have proved that a man will drop 1000 feet before reaching the speed of 119 miles per hour."

A record parachute jump was made by John Tranum. He was taken to an altitude of more than 20.000 feet before he jumped from the machine. He delayed pulling the rip cord of his parachute until he had fallen 17,500 feet, which is a little short of four mile®. He then landed safely by means of the parachute. . His dangerous experiment proved that a man can tumble over and over in the air at a speed of more than

a hundred miles an hour for several miles, without losing consciousness; and that if a pilot were forced to leave his machine at the higher levels where he must breath compressed ovygen, he could get down in safety to the lower levels where the air pressure is normal. Remarkable Escapes. Mr. Masters records in "On the Wing" some sensational escapes from death by means of parachutes. On June 30, 1931, Fliglit-Cadet Bradley, of the Royal Air Force, set out from the aerodrome at Cranwell, Lincolnshire, and at 10,000 ft he began to practise some of the aerial acrobatic feats that an air force must master in order to engage an enemy. Switching off the engine, he put the machine down in a vertical dive, and soon found he was diving slightly on his back. He manipulated the elevator in an effort to get out of the dive, but could make no impression on the machine. He estimated that it was diving earthwards at 300 miles per hour. He tried to roll the machine over, in order to obtain control of it, and eventually this manoeuvre was successful. He found himself diving at a very steep angle in a forward direction. He began to manipulate the tail in order to get the machine out of her dive, and to his astonishment lie saw the lower wings break oft' and follow downward in his wake. Glancing upward, lie saw that the top wings had gone. He was diving earthwards in the fuselage, which began to revolve rapidly as it fell. He released himself from the safety belt which secured liini to the seat in the cockpit, and tried to get out of the machine, but was pinned so tightly against the left side by centrifugal force _ that lie could scarcelv move. He put his elbows on the cockpit and levered himself up. He got over the side, but was held tightly against the outside of the cockpit. He forced himself away, and pulled the rip-cord of his parachute, which opened with a loud crack, and checked his descent. 1

Naturally, he thought all danger was over provided he landed safely, but 011 glancing upward he saw two of the detached wings of the aeroplane descending. If either of them hit his parachute, the damage would probably render it unable to support his weight, and he would strike the ground with such force as to be instantly killed. By clutching some of the cords of the parachute, he tried to close it partially 011 one side so as to alter its course and escape the falling wings, which wore descending at a faster rate than the parachute. He saw one wing slide past him in a dive, and the other fepin by slowly. He managed to reach the ground safely, after side-slipping the parachute away from a wood, where he might have been injured if caught in the branches of a tree. Circled by Blazing 'Plane. On January 17, 192G, Flight-Lieuten-ant J. T. Hutchinson, with Mr. P. Stanley as observer, were putting a bombing aeroplane through her tests. They were flying near Dayton, as a height of SOOOft,. when there was an explosion from a leaky petrol pipe. The explosion ripped off the cowling and blew away the fireproof bulkhead, which otherwise would have protected the pilot and observer in the cockpit. The flames swept into the cockpit and drove them out 011 to the lower 'plane before the pilot could cut off the engine. Mr.

Stanley jumped, and when Lieutenant Hutchinson saw the observer's parachute open, he followed. The control of the machine had been set for a level flight with one wing down, and as a result the burning machine flew in circles round Lieutenant Hutchinson as his parachute descended. It went round and round him, losing height at about the same rate as himself. It carried half a dozen bombs, a large quantity of ammunition, and o'2() gallons of petrol. He heard the ammunition going off as the flames reached it, and wondered if he would be struck by ny of the bullets. Greater danger

was to be apprehended from the bombs and petrol. If they exploded close to him he was doomed. His deliverance from danger came in an unexpected fashion from the fire which had placed him in his predicament. The flames consumed so much of the structure of the machine that it began to fall faster than the parachute. When the machine crashed to the ground the petrol tank exploded in a. great burst of flame, but the bombs did not go off. The pilot and the observer each landed safely with their parachutes. A Fall of Six Miles. The most thrilling fall through the air that has been recorded in the history of aviation, 'was experienced by Major It. W. Sehroeder, when he was chief test pilot of the United States Air Service. On February 0, 1020, his machine nose-dived from a height of six miles to within three miles of earth, when he was attempting to establish a world's record in altitude. Something went wrong with his oxygen supply, and he lost consciousness after reaching a height of six miles. Before losing consciousness he switched off the engine and put the machine into a spin. An the machine fell downward out of the rarilied atmosphere, the pilot gradually recovered. When three miles above the earth, he switched on the engine and a little later made a safe landing at McCook Field.

Twenty days later he made another attempt to reach an altitude of 40,000 ft. "In less than half an hour he attained the half-way mark, and the earth was 20,000 ft below," writes Mr. Masters, in describing this flight in an earlier book, "Perilous Days." "He glanced at the thermometer and saw it was well below freezing point. His electrically-heated clothing protected him from the cold, and made him feel quito warm and cosy, though his exposed cheeks told him that there was a nip in the air. The machine continued to roar upward, and every minute the air became rarer, and the temperature fell lower. But the rarified

air affected neither man nor machine. Tho man inhaled his oxygen and breathed freely, while the super-charger gave tho engine all the air it needed. The temperature dropped lower and lower —20, 30, 40, and 50 decrees below zero. Doggedly he pushed the machine up to 35,000 ft. He had been sitting in tho cockpit for over an hour and a half, and each thousand feet took a little longer to climb. Gradually lie climbed to 30,000 ft . . . Slowly he climbed another hundred feet. Then suddenly he felt queer; tho oxygen had ceased to flow. He fumbled for the stopcock controlling the flow, to make sure it was open. Ho could not see very well for a solid sheet of ice over his goggles, inside and out, obstructed his vision. Unthinkingly he lifted his goggles to see if the stopcock of the oxygen supply was wide open. Appalling Explosion in His Head. "Instantly a most appalling explosion took place inside his head. It seemed to him that his skull had burst. Everything went black. He tried to open his eyes, but to his horror, he found it impossible. What had actually happened was this: The temperature had dropped to 07 degrees below zero, and directly he lifted his goggles his eyes suddenly coming into contact with the cold air froze solid. Blind and dazed, the unfortunate airman could no longer control the 'plane. There came a tremendous rush of air, and the wind began to screech past as ho drifted into unconsciousness. Down and down plunged man and machine. One petrol tank was crashed in, owing to the sudden change in the pressure of the air; then another tank was smashed, and another, the rarefied air inside thenl being unable to withstand the rapidiy increasing pressure outside. Mile after mile the machine plunged down with its unconscious pilot. In less than three minutes he fell six miles. He was only 2000 feet from earth —barely 10 seconds from death —when his numbed brain cleared a little. He pulled hard on the "stick," knowing that he must straighten out the machine to land. A momentary glimpse of the aerodrome came to his tortured eyes—just as though he had peeped for an instant through a crack in a black clond." "The men in McCook Field saw the machine alight and stop. They raced up to it. and at first glance at the pilot they thought he was dead. His eyes and eyelids were lrozen solid and his body was rigid. Gently they lifted him out and took him to the hospital, where beneficent Nature smoothed away the ill effects of those swift and unexpected changes of pressure to which his body had been subjected. When they came to examine the machine they found that the friction of the atmosphere during the terrifying plunge earthwards had stripped patches of varnish off the wings as cleanly as though they had been subjected to a sand Mast. The miracle is that the man survived those sudden alterations of pressure under which the steel tanks collapsed."