SAFETY IN THE AIR.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19503, 6 December 1926, Page 11

SAFETY IN THE AIR.

automatic parachutes, a frenchman;s suggestion. The recent air disasters have brought forth a number of suggestions for increas- . ing safety in the air. M. Henri Bardel, ' technical director of one of the biggest French air lines, has the cordial support of a number of experienced transport pilots in his contention that not only should all passenger aeroplanes have ft parachute for every passenger, but that the pilot should be able to compel hi* passengers to use them. M. Barrel's suggestion is that each seat in an aeroplane should be so fitted that by pressing a lever the pilot could turn it oyer, thus flinging the passenger out of i the machine, whether he wished to go 5 or not. 0:E course, with this system every passenger would be attached to a parachute, the straps of which could have automatic locks so that the;'passenger could neither detach himself from it nor use it without the pilot's consent. In case of a serious mishap which roust inevitably end in a crash, the pilot could thus drop his passengers one after another, as a bomber drops his charges of explosives, and before they realised what • was happening they would find themselves f on solid ground with no worse harm than » a certain amount of snook. S