NEW PARACHUTE DEVICE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21153, 9 April 1932, Page 2 (Supplement)

NEW PARACHUTE DEVICE.

SAFETY IN THE AIR. PROVISION FOR CRASHES. DETACHABLE CABINS. .All preconceived idea? concerning security in the air will bo revolutionised by an invention which has lately been secretly tested in Paris. It is an airplane with a detachable cabin which, in an emergency, will carry passengers—by means of a parachute attachment—safely to earth. The first available details were given to the Daily Express correspondent recently in an interview with tho inventor. " This is tho first practical examplo of what I call an attempt to provide ' collective ' security," tho inventor said. " That is to say, my invention is a device by which not only tho passengers seated in a commercial airplane, but also the pilot—and tho mails—can escape with perfect safety in case of accident. I first presented my idea to tho International Air Security Congress, held in Paris in December, i 930. It was then accepted as tho most practical proposition so far put forward. " I later sent a small working model to the French Air Ministry. So strong was tho impression made by this that the authorities immediately accepted it and removed it to tho technical air laboratories at St. Cyr, where it was put through tho most gruelling tests. It emerged from these with completo success and to tho entiro satisfaction of tho experts. " Accordingly I was granted a working subsidy, and tho French Government have ordered a large-scalo model—an exact reproduction of a two and a-half-ton machine—which will, in a few weeks' time, bo towed up to a considerable height by an nirplano and then released to demonstrate finally, that the invention is quito sound." Basic Principle of Plan. The inventor then explained tho basic idea of his device. "It is obvious," ho said, " that, for perfect security, some invention must bo provided by which the occupants of a machine may bo saved without having to movo from their scats. My invention provides for this. " Tho cabin part of the machine is detachable, and is ablo to make a separate landing by means of a large parachute. This is contained, in the case of a monoplane, in a small super-imposed wing, or, in the case of a biplane, within tho upper wing-span, and offers practically no resistance to tho wind in ordinary flight. " In the event of an accident all the pilot has to do is to pull back a lever. This lets down a shutter underneath tho specially constructed wing, and forms a funnel through which, as a result of tho speed of tho airplane, wind is driven toward tho interior, giving the first impulse for tho de+achmcnt of the parachute. " A drop shutter is pushed back by the force, and the parachute is released. This pulls at tho cabin to which it is attached, causing it to run backwards along rails fixed to a double fuselage, and to swing free of the rest of the machine. Tho cabin then floats down safely to tho ground. The rest of tho airplane is, of course, wrecked, but the device would, naturally, bo used only in extreme cases. Special Timing Device. " My invention, of course, requires this double tail, along which tho rails are fixed, but that is a small matter compared with tho certain security of tho occupants of an airplane. "As I say, at St. Cyr they placed my model in tho most disadvantageous position before a wind tunnel, and in each caso tho device acted perfectly. Now, of course, a larger model is to bo tried, and tho test of that will bo considered more or less conclusive." Tho inventor stated that this large model would have ft special timing device by which it would go into a spinning nose-divo when released. Iho parachute would be, with tho cabin, drawn off tho rest of tho machine. In order, however, not to sacrifice a model which has taken months of hard work and a great deal of money to construct, the timing device will also right tho airplano and allow it to land safely by itself, which would not bo tho case with a full-size airplane.