FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1945
1945 - 0116.PDF
62 Airborne Lifeboats Fully Provisioned Power Lifeboat Dropped to Ditched Air CrewsA TO someone, and it is said to be Air Chief Marshal SirArthur Harris, of Bomber Command, must go thecredit for having first conceived the idea of dropping from an aircraft, by parachute, a genuinely seaworthy, well-provisioned and fully equipped lifeboat so that ditched air crews, having taken to their ordinary rubber dinghies, could be given a very real chance of getting back to these shores even though from very long distances and in poor conditions. In a war where the most highly developed scientific and mechanical devices for killing are in everyday use, it is both comforting and morally edifying to realise that great ingenuity has been evoked in devising the solution to a humanitarian problem. It is, perhaps, fitting that aircraft should play a leading part in it. About the middle of 1941, when it had been decided that an airborne lifeboat was not an idle dream, Group Capt. (now Air Comdre.) E. F. Waring, who was responsible for the development of the idea, approached A. C. Robb the yacht designer, who is now a Lieutenant Commander, R.N.V.R., and asked him to design a suitable boat for the purpose envisaged. At that tim-i the Hudson was selected as the carrier air- craft, and it was thought that for aerodynamic reasons the lifeboat must be accommodated within the bomb bay. 7. A moment beforeactually touching down. The sea anchor will pre-vent the boat drifting. 8. On striking, as theshroud cables slacken they are automaticallyreleased.
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
