MEET CLARICE!

Greymouth Evening Star, 24 March 1928, Page 9

MEET CLARICE!

The ‘‘Stunt-Art-isf ” Aviatrix Wh© is th® Last Word in Daring.

HE attractive young lady whose photograph apllears just aljove is W®. an aviatrix, a stunt artist, in the employ of the Navy. It is her particular business to make experimental descents with parachutes, Already she has made many drops from altitudes of one to five miles. She has had some mishaps. But Clarice is tough, and inured to accidents that might be fatal to ordinary folks. As will be observed, she is made of rope. Her weight is about 12st 101 b; but that is because her stomach is stuffed, with scrap iron. Accordingly her avoirdupois corresponds approximately to that of a heavy man. Without her clothes, Clarice is not beautiful; but when she is all dressed up in canvas overalls, she is rather pretty. Although not visible in the picture, she wears, fastened to the lower part of her back, the standard “seat pack” which contains a parachute. When Clarice drops from an airplane, a rip cord is pulled which opens the pack and releases the parachute. Whereupon, as the latter expands umbrella-fashion, Clarice floats slowly and gracefully down to the ground. The navy is engaged in constant experiments to improve the efficiency of parachutes. Many fliers have jumped with parachutes and dived like stones to death below. This was because they had forgotten to jerk the ring which opened the parachute, Others have met fatal injuries because they jerked the release ring too soon after leaving.the plane in midair.

Experiments with Clarice resulted in a new system of parachute jumping. Instead of throwing Clarice off a plane, the parachute was thrown first, and Clarice was left on a wing of the plane. The parachute yanked Clarice from the wing. The chute is controlled by a miniature bag which emerges bn the pulling of a rip cord to which a ring is attached. The

pilot parachute opens automatically through the force of rubber springs. It drags the main bag. into position and causes it to spread and inflate. When- this is done, the parachute, sufficiently remdVed from the. plane to avoid the possibility of any mixup, literally drags the flier from the plane. •About the time the navy, designers were discussing this new tyjie of parachute, the question, came up: “Who will be the first to test it?” The unanimous vote was “Clarice!” Thus, again, Clarice risked her hempen life in the interests of safe and sane aviation, and when she demonstrated that the new device worked, a subsequent successful test was made with human freight. The parachutist described'his experience as follows : — “The jerk you get when your body is suddenly dragged off the wing of a plane going at a speed of a hundred miles an hour or more, is a bit severe, but it doesn’t hurt you. There’s no doubt that the new parachute,' while an improvement on the old. will not be the last design. There will newer and better parachutes, and. Clarice will always be on the job to make the first trip in them, to find out whether they work or not.”