MIGHT CARRY TANK.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 143, 18 June 1940, Page 5

MIGHT CARRY TANK.

SUPER PARACHUTE. ONE CARRIED OWN 'PLANE. WHAT DESIGNER SAYS. (Special—By Air Mail.) LONDON, May 25.

A parachute could be made to carry , a tank, according to the man who prob- ; bably known more about paradhutes 1 than any other man in the world. He declared this week, in Txmdon, that . parachutes could be made of almost any size. The limit was not in the mak- , ing or mana/iement of the parachute but in the size of the aeroplane that ■ carried it. He is Mr. Leslie L. Irving, head of one of the leading parachute manufacturing companies, himself a former holder of the record for para-| clmte jumping. [ "I was making ■parachutes for the Russians 12 years ago that were cap-1 able of carrying guns and ammunition." Mr. Irving said. "Those they are using), now are based on one of our design." , These are parachutes 28ft. in diameter. , Britain's own Service parachute has a diameter of 24ft. The Cierman parachute troops use one of about 30ft. Machine Guns And Bicycles. The extra six foot in diameter makes it possible for the Germans to bring their sub-machine-guns and perhaps their folding bicycles down with them. Their descent is made easier by the fact that they take off from a 'plane going at slow speed. Slow initial speed means less strain on the parachute, so it would be quite possible, Mr. Irving thinks, for the German 30ft. parachute to he made of less durable material, and consequently to be no heavier than the smaller British Service model, When a man is jumping from a wrecked aeroplane he may well be going at anything up to 300 miles an hour. Not for him the comparatively leisurely start of a parachute trooper jumping from a machine has slowed down to the limit.

Once Mr. Irving's firm made a parachute that carried its own aeroplane. The plane stopped its engines, dropped, then let out its parachute, and came down safely. This purachute was 80ft. in diameter. It went into a bag 3ft in diameter by 4ft deep—scarcely as big as a heavy bomb. The experiment, though successful, was not followed up. Danger Of Fire. As Mr. Irving- puts it, "While the danger of fire remains you "will have to have individual parachutes, so "why waste space on a big one?" At the same time, the experiment shows the possibilities of heavily-loaded parachutes. "Practically," Mr. Irving insists, "there is no limit except the size of the aeroplane and the size of the hole you arc going to drop your parachute through." Mr. IrviiiiT is the founder of the Caterpillar Club, -which preseats a badge to all airmen who have saved their lives by parachute. It hi- a membership rf some 3000. Up to this week it has 128 new members since the war. "These are the onet who have written in to us," Mr. L vLig says. "We know there are easily twice, as many in fact."