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Aviation History
1920
1920 - 0193.PDF
FEBRUARY 12, 1920 fortunate parachutist. The case was at once reported by me to the Air Ministry, who immediately despatched a repre- sentative to make a full investigation of the circumstances ; and it was proved that the parachute was in no way at fault. The second casualty took place in the United States, and was a very extraordinary one ; for at the enquiry which followed it was proved that the officer, who had gone up purposely to make a parachute descent, jumped from the plane without getting into his harness. As he was not connected to his parachute, it cannot be blamed for this officer's death. The third casualty, that to which Col. Holt has specifically referred as having occurred in the United States, ought never to have happened. The accident occurred in connection with a D.H. 9 aeroplane, a type from which many successful live drops had been made in this country, but always with the elevator rocker arm shielded, so that this very accident, the possibility of which had been foreseen, could not, with the rocker arm so guarded, by any possibility take place. Al- though strict instructions had been given, before the party left England, that no avoidable risks were to be taken, the officer in our employ, whose death occurred, although warned of the danger, insisted upon going up without the projecting rocker arm being shielded. He was quite confident that he could clear it, and so he took this entirely unjustifiable risk. When this officer made his drop, the life-line caught in a loop around the rocker arm, and, as there was no shock- absorber between the falling load and this point of rigid resistance, the fall of 12 ft. developed a strain of 2,400 lbs., which burst his harness, out of which he fell to earth. No pull came upon the parachute, which remained undisturbed in its container. The same parachute, without reassembly, was subsequently used successfully on a later occasion. Col. Holt will, I feel sure, do me the justice to agree that in no one of these cases could the conduct of the parachute be called in question. He is at liberty to see all the documentary evidence, reports, correspondence and photographs, in connection with these eases. In regard to Col. Holt's final remark on this last case, that " you cannot have ropes dangling in proximity to the machine without attendant risks," I entirely agree with him ; and in some of my specifications I have shown methods by which the life-line is carried in a sunken groove and protected by a stripping piece or held therein by breaking cords. This has been done with the triple obj ect of (a) preventing any possible error in the connection of the aviator with his parachute ; (b) protecting the life-line from weathering, and (c) avoiding the flogging about of the life-line and its unnecessary head resistance. These are refinements of design not yet appre- ciated, or called for, by the Air Ministry. Recently I sub- mitted to the ^aeronautical journals a short article entitled " The Parachute's Worst Enemy " (of which some recognised the importance and published it), pointing out the necessity, if life-saving equipment is to be taken seriously and used with the least attendant risk, of smoothing ofi all projections and rugosities on the fuselage beneath and behind the cockpits, which is not beyond the capacity of aeroplane designers to accomplish without detriment to their machines. The insurance companies who take aerial risks will eventually be provided with experts of capacity to consider and criticise, whose duty it will be to study matters of detail of this kind, and advise them as to whether they appreciably reduce risk, and if it is proved to the satisfaction of their directors that they do (of which the last case is a proof), they will take suitable action to the end that avoidable risks should be removed, or, in default, discrimination in premiums may possibly be shown against those types of machines held to be dangerous to get away from in case of disaster. It is all a matter of com- parative risk, and the steady elimination of avoidable risk in the air will continue, in spite of our desperate conservatism, because it will be found to pay. Because I have designed a series of different types of para- chute containers with, in some cases, different- kinds of " positive " opening, Col Holt writes as though he had jumped to the conclusion that this was because I had mis- givings that my original standardised Ai Type would not be effectual in the actual conditions likely to arise in the case of a sudden aeroplane collapse. With his knowledge of its untarnished record in action. Col. Holt must know that this is not so. The prime duty of everyone concerned with aerial life-saving equipment is the continual elimination of avoidable risks, large and small; and in all my inventions, whatever their value, I have had the elimination of risk—qua man and qua machine—constantly before me as my incentive and prime object. In the case of the several inventions of positive opening and " tangle-proof rigging " my commercial instincts have led me to seek diligently for and to protect all alternative methods possessing the required degree of simplicity of action in order that my company should not be faced by competition, if these had been independently dis- covered and worked by other people. This commercial aspect, which in itself is a sufficient justification, no doubt has application to all my inventions, but my main object in working out a range of different types of containers is to make the application of parachutes always a matter of safety to meet the infinite variety of design in aeroplanes. I started with the hope of making a standard pattern of parachute suitable for all purposes and requirements, and my original A type has proved itself as perfect in action in a great variety of circumstances as any aviator can wish for. But supposing it is desired by the aeroplane builder that the parachute should be stowed in a wide shallow metallic casing with a narrow slot mouth, would Col. Holt say that such a proposition should be cast aside because the A type posi- tive opening was inapplicable ? That particular problem, amongst many others set me by officers of the Air Board and Air Ministry, was faced and solved quite perfectly with my F type of positive opening. An entirely different problem had to be met when the Daily Mail did me the honour to ask me to work out a scheme for dropping heavy loads of news- papers from Handley Page machines with accuracy upon targets within a circumscribed area. To ensure the re- markable accuracy which resulted, it was necessary that these special parachutes should be provided with " positive opening " so that their trajectory should be identical in order to get good shooting. They had to be confined in narrow cubicles, and it was a condition that they had to be quite flexible, subject to compression, and without any rigid parts. It was thus that my G type " positive opening " came into being, and proved a perfect success. These are merely two examples of special adaptation to environment, and, like all my other inventions, have been developed in response to requirement, and not, as Col. Holt is pleased to describe them, as " just so many desperate efforts to circumvent the natural limitations of his own parachute system." May we hear from Co!. Holt again ? E. R. CALTHROP, M.Inst.C.E., M.I.Mech.E. FLYING AND CURIOUS PHENOMENA [1994] While discussing curious phenomena and cloud scenes with several other pilots recently, I happened to recount the following experience of my own. As no one present seemed to have heard or seen anything like it, I venture to repeat it for the benefit of the readers of FLIGHT. I was flying at Brighton with two passengers on October 15, 1919. The weather was showery, and the sky partially overcast by rain clouds at about 3,000 ft. On reaching this height I found myself flying level with a large cloud, from which rain could be seen falling. I was in bright sunlight, between the sun and the cloud. After a short time, during which I stayed near this cloud, I noticed on one side of the machine one " arm " of a rainbow. The other arm, I saw, was on the other side. Owing to the top plane being immediately above my head, I could not see the " top " of the arc. I started to turn round in order to get further away and have a complete view, when I saw to my surprise that the " top " of the rainbow was below, so that it appeared inverted, with the two arms pointing upwards—a most queer effect. This lasted for two or three minutes until the rainbow faded, and was noticed by both my passengers. I should be interested to know if any of your readers have witnessed this themselves, and if they know the scientific explanation. Watford. H. S. BROAD, Capt. ' Philippine Governor-General Flies to Pacific ONE of the first flights to be made in the Philippine Islands in a non-Governmental machine was that of the Governor-General, Mr. Francis B. Harrison, in a Curtiss Seagull. The Governor-General recently flew from Manila Bay to the Pacific Ocean and return, a total distance of almost one hundred and fifty miles. He was in the air an hour and fifty-five minutes, and reached an altitude of 7,300 ft. Mrs. Harrison and Miss Virginia Harrison also made t :L A Flying-Boat Service for Peru PRESIDENT LEGUIA was the first passenger at the formal inauguration of the Handley Page commercial flying-boat service at Ancon on February 8, Capt. Evans piloting the machine, writes The Times correspondent at Lima. After half an hour's flight over the Pacific Ocean, the President predicted a magnificent future for aviation in Peru. He declared that Peru was more adapted to, and had greater need for, aviation than any other country in the South American continent. .,..—. 193
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