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Aviation History
1917
1917 - 0837.PDF
AUGUST 16, 1917. THE PARACHUTE UP-TO-DATE. CHRONOLOGICALLY speaking the parachute is the pioneer type of aircraft, being generally acknowledged to have antedated the invention of the balloon. It is on record that several hundred years ago, Siamese royalty were entertained by an inventor who made leaps from great heights with parachutes attached to his body. That versatile Italian, Leonardo da Vinci, who appears to have anticipated a great many modern "inventions," described a parachute as long ago as 1514, but so far as can be ascertained, the first authentic practical demonstration of the utility of the parachute was made by a Frenchman, M. Lenormand, at Lyons, in 1783. This inventor suggested the parachute as a means of descending from the upper parts of a burning house, and actually succeeded in making a safe descent from the top of a building in Lyons. In 1783, the aeronaut Blanchard conceived the idea of using the parachute in ballooning, and first tested one by attaching it to a basket in which was placed a dog. The descent was made safely, but when Blanchard tried the experiment him- self, although the fall was certainly very much retarded, he 'sustained a broken leg. This happened in 1793. On October 22nd, 1797, M. Garnerin made a very successful parachute jump from a balloon at an altitude of over a mile. With this famous descent it may be said that the parachute was fairly established as a means o£ checking the speed of a free fall from a height, and has been employed in this manner for a variety of purposes since that date. Fundamentally, there is no very great danger attending the descent in a parachute, provided the first essential condi- tion is satisfied, i.e., that the parachute opens. Unfortunately, there is, or rather, there was, always the possibility that the many cords which support the parachutist from the periphery of the parachute may become entangled and prevent it from opening. More than one life has been lost in this manner, and this uncertainty has, without doubt, been largely responsible for the suspicion with which many, one might perhaps be permitted to say most, modern aviators regard the parachute. In times of peace, when the possibility of breakage in the air is remote, it has been rightly argued that in most cases the aeroplane itself would form the best parachute the pilot could possibly have, as it is superior to the parachute in that it may be steered in any direction, thus enabling the pilot to choose a suitable landing ground, whereas in the parachute he must perforce go whither the wind chooses to send him. In times of war, however, it is unfortunately no infrequent occurrence that an aeroplane gets so badly damaged by gun fire that a portion of it, such as awing or a tail boom, breaks away. Marvellous escapes in such cases are on record, but, generally speaking, it means certain death for the unfortunate pilot. It is quite obvious that if a parachute can be made which is absolutely certain to open when required to do so, and can be made to leave the aeroplane without jcatching anywhere, and teaming itself to pieces, an opportunity to save himself has been afforded to the pilot of a broken machine. Of what has been done in the wav of parachute descents from aircraft during the war it is not, of course, possible to speak at present, but previous to the outbreak of war it may be remembered that Pegoud jumped out from an aeroplane with a parachute attached to his body and landed safely, the B16riot monoplane on which he made the experiment landing itself in a practically undamaged condition near by. In this country the parachute jump from an aeroplane was first made from a Grahame-White biplane by Mr. Ntwall, who was seated on one of the chassis skids. .It may still be remembered how the parachutist con- tinued to postpone the jump until the late Major Goodden, who was himself an experienced parachutist, became im- patient, and, climbing out on one of the wings of the aero- plane, kicked his passenger into space. The landing was effected without a hitch, and thus ended the first parachute jump from an aeroplane in England. With the extensive employment of airships, kite balloons, and spherical balloons, the parachute has become a necessary accessory, and its usefulness for these purposes is probably established beyond question. Slower, considerably slower, has been its adoption for use on aeroplanes. This is probably partly due to prejudice, created by the erratic and uncertain behaviour of the old-fashioned parachute, and partly to the inherent difficulty of successfully launching it from such a fast moving vehicle as an aeroplane. In the first place, the parachute must be so placed in the aeroplane that if anything goes wrong with the machine, the pilot has but to release his safety belt and jump overboard, and the parachute will release itself from the machine and open in a minimum of time so as to reduce the length of " free fall " experienced by the pilot. Secondly, the possibility of the parachute opening before it is clear of the machine, and, therefore, likely to be 837 blown back and catching in the tail planes or tail skid, mustbe absolutely eliminated. Finally, on reaching the ground the pilot must be able to detach himself instantly from theparachute, so as to avoid being dragged along the ground and through ditches, hedges, &c. From a visit to the premises of Messrs. E. R. Calthrop's Aerial Patents, Ltd., at Eldon Street, in the City, we have received the impression that all these desiderata have been attained in the latest type parachute designed by this firm. It is now a good many years since Mr. Calthrop commenced his experiments on parachutes, and if he has at last succeeded in turning what was once a very erratic craft of the air into a machine designed to pe: form a given function with certainty, and no others, it is only after endless experimenting and improving upon improvements, that he has now succeeded We firmly believe, and so far as we are able to judge, there is none of the old-time shut-your-eyes-hold-your-breath-jump- and-see-what-happens uncertainty about the Calthrop para- chute. Under present conditions, it would obviously be grossly indiscreet were we to give a detailed description of the Calthrop parachute, but a brief outline of what the parachute is claimed to do, and does, as evidenced by the series of moving pictures shown us, may be permissible. The chief advantage of the Calthrop parachute lies in the ingenious method by which it is released from the craft supporting it. This is at once simple and effective, with no possibility of getting out. of order. A pull of given magnitude, furnished by the weight of the parachutist, releases it from its anchorage, and as soon as the supporting tapes are taut the parachute opens and sustains the pilot. The method of folding the rigging has been - very carefully thought out, and the result is that, instead of tumbling out in a bunch with the attendant possibility of becoming entangled, the rigging is unfolded gradually, so that each of the strands is taut and straight for the portion of it that is at that moment outside the covering. The pleat- ing and folding of the parachute body itself is carried out in a way that has been found by experience to give the least amount of friction between adjacent folds during the process of opening. Incorporated in the rigging is a shock absorbing device ~ which has been found to be so effective that the pilot did not experience any sudden jerk whatever when the full weight of his body was taken by the parachute. From a series of very interesting films it appeared that the longest time taken for the parachute to open after the pilot had jumped from the aeroplane was 2J seconds, the time taken depending, appa- rently, upon the speed of the aeroplane, the quickest opening occurring with the fast machine and the slowest with a slower machine. As regards the altitude from which it is safe to jump, Mr. Calthrop advocates 200 ft. as the minimum, although we witnessed a film, showing a jump from only just over 100 ft., in which the pilot was being supported by the parachute while still a matter of some 20 or 30 ft. from the ground. The quick release by means of which the pDot detaches himself from the parachute on landing is of the very simplest type, and its effectiveness was clearly demonstrated in one of the films, which showed that the pilot got into an air current when only a few feet from the ground, the parachute trailing out at what appeared to be a very dangerous angle. However, by releasing himself just before striking, he landed safely, and the parachute came to rest as soon as released of the weight of the pilot. That this is a necessary precaution was illustrated in another film, in which the weight was in the form of a sand bag. A fresh breeze was blowing, and the bag trailed along a considerable distance before the attendants were able to capture the parachute. Air and water-tight covers protect the ^parachute when not in use, and absolutely prevent it from getting damp. To ensure that nothing is tampered with in transit, the parachute is packed by the makers in a strong wooden box, which is then i sealed, a card of instructions for use being tacked inside the lid of the box, to be carefully read before touching anything of the contents, which is all arranged according to the makers' system, even to the pilot's harness. Certainly, if careful design and painstaking workmanship count for anything, the Calthrop parachute is as near perfection as it is possible to get it, and the fact that a perusual of the, unfortunately, only too frequent accidents to aviators would indicate that a very great percentage of these pilots might have been saved had they been equipped with a reliable parachute, is a very strong point in favour of a more general adoption of this useful " accessory." We do not doubt that there are a good many people who shrug their shoulders at the idea of a para- chute on board an aeroplane. We were inclined to do the same—until we saw Mr. Calthrop's " Guardian Angel."
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