TO SAVE LIFE

Evening Star, Issue 21619, 15 January 1934, Page 8

TO SAVE LIFE

AIRMEN WHO JUMPED THE CATERPILLAR CLUB Two American transcontinental air mail pilots, to save their lives in a blizzard, abandoned their aeroplanes and floated to safety in parachutes, this is a fairly common experience in the U.S,A.. where foul weather often sweeps the flying routes. In Australia, because of ideal flying weather and easy country, pilots have never had to abandon their ships, and only service pilots wear parachutes (writes John Williains, in the Sydney 1 Daily Telegraph ). Sydney polits, could recall only one case of an Australian pilot jumping to save his life by parachute—a Richmond Air Force officer, who pulled oft the wings of his aeroplane while stunting. The aeroplane, naturally, was Wr fhese two American pilots now become members of the famous b Caterpillar Club, the members of which are men and women who have saved their lives by jumping from disabled aircraft. Tho TJ.S. War Department archives show that the club was originated by a group of pilots, men who had already “ bailed out ” or jumped to save their necks, in Dayton (Ohio) in 1922. They were stuck .for a name, Sky Hookers ” and ‘' Crawlers ” being rejected. Finally “.Caterpillar” was chosen. A parachute’s main sail and lines are woven irom the finest silk. The lowly worm spins a cocoon, crawls out, and flies away from certain death. ho better figurative example of what a pilot of passenger should do in case of emergency can be imagined. Dozens of pilots and observers jumped from disabled aeroplanes and balloons in the World War, but the club absorbs peace-time men only. Numbers of pilots have earned membership several times. Lindbergh was a professional, and had jumped eleven times in demonstrations before he was forced to jump to save his life, once in the U.S. Air Corps and once with the air mail. , • - The first highly • spectacular use of parachutes was made in Chicago in 1919. A blimp (dirigible balloon) was flying over the city _ with five men aboard. It cracked in half and burst into flames. The men jumped. Before the blimp plunged through the roof of a city building, killing ten persons and injuring thirty, it hit the parachutes of two of the falling men and set them on fire. Falling in open country ,is perfectly safe, but, landing in a city, with local wind currents among the tell buildings, is a different story. Only two of the crew lived to tell the terrible tale. Incidentally, they are both employed in aviation to-day. One is. Admiral John A. Boettner, of the U.S, Navy Air Corps. There are some 280 members of the Caterpillar Club. Two are women, both married. I was present at Wheeler Field, Hawaii, when Lieutenant Norme D. Frost, U.S. Air Corps, became member No. 115 on December 4, 1928. He was flying at 6,000 ft in a Boeing pursuit i plane. He attempted an upside down or outside spin, a, stunt he had done several times before in tho same plane. In a flash we knew something was wrong. _ . The plane went into a spin, tighter and tighter, and was soon at the mercy of the ravenous clutch of gravity, spinning in a dizzy vertical_ hee-line. We were helpless in a flight formation nearby. We dived in pursuit, but finally gave up, fearing our ’ movements might endanger Frost should he succeed in righting the plane. The last wo saw of him was his head bobbing violently in the cockpit. Clouds enveloped the plane. We circled wide and landed. There was Frost’s plane buried deep on the edge of the field. Ambulance and fire wagons were hurtling across the field. And in a paddock next door Frost calmlv waved as he extricated himself from the tangle of his parachute! He had been flung from the plane so swiftly that observers on the ground missed him, and he landed behind them, out of sight beyond the hangars. His official report of the jump reads:— “ I was spinning so fast that the ,objects ons the ground formed so many concentric circles. My eyes felt that they would be sucked out, the centrifugal force was so terrific. I tried to release my safety belt, but the tips of my fingers caught in the metal loop. Blood splashed into my face. The end of one finger was torn off. . . . I jerked my left hand away with the other. The ground was spinning closer. Finally I was flung clear of the machine like a shot from a gun, and started to fall head downwards towards the earth. I soon found the rip-cord, and so jerked the parachute loose. . . . Everything now was an immense peace. The contrast from the roar of the plane was enormous. . . . I floated down. Soon I saw the plane still spinning madly. Then I heard it crash. ...”