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Aviation History
1946
1946 - 1055.PDF
MAY 30TH, 1946 543 (2) In the chill of early morning the five "guinea-pig " volun- teers get into their rubber dinghy from an Air/Sea Rescue boat and (3) are turned adrift to begin their five-hour spell of exposure before having the airborne lifeboat dropped to th;m in the Solent. An unexpected bit of realism was a leak in the dinghy fabric which meant frequent bailing out. sight than even that of the Queen Mary to a G.I. bride, but it was inevitable that operational use of the Mark I should have disclosed a number of ways in which it could be improved upon. The Mark .II, therefore, came into being (though not before the end of hostilities) and recently underwent its first serious trial in the open sea. The trial had a dual purpose—to prove the seaworthi- ness of the boat itself, and to test the effectiveness of its modified equipment under conditions approximating as closely as possible to the real thing. In the latter respect it was appreciated that equipment which might be per- fectly satisfaciory when handled by men in normal physical and mental condition, might not be completely effective in the numbed fingers of an aircrew chilled and exhausted by long exposure in a rubber dinghy. Five Volunteers Patently the only way to discover any snags under this heading was through the services of volunteer "guinea pigs," and they came forward in the persons of Wing Cdr. T. Q. Horner. Sqn. Ldr. G. W. A. Parker, and Sqn. Ldr. T. C. McNamara, all of the Air Ministry; Sqn. Ldr. E. A. Paske of the R.A.F. Institute of Aviation Medicine ; and Sqn. Ldr. A. W. Barwood of the School of Air/Sea Rescue. Incidentally, Sqn. Ldr. Paske had designed a new type of "exposure suit" which was included in the equipment under test. The trial began when an R.A.F. flying boat tender put out from a Calshot jetty just after 7 o'clock one morning with the five officers and a rubber dinghy aboard. At approximately 7.30 a.m. the tender hove-to where South- ampton Water broadens into the Solent, turned the dinghy and its crew adrift, and sprinted back to base and break- fast. For three hours the dinghy's occupants were left to enjoy the initial experience of a ditched bomber crew. Then at 10.30 a.m. a Warwick V dropped them what is known as Lindholme gear—five containers holding a spare circular rubber dinghy, weatherproof suits, water, con- centrated food, cigarettes, and hot-bags. The drop was (4) Released from beneath a Warwick V, at about 700 ft., the Airborne Lifeboat, Mark II, lets go its cluster of six parachutes. In the picture the pilot chute is just about to liberate the six main parachutes from the pack. (5) On alighting on the water, the lifeboat auto- matically casts off its 'chutes and fires rocket lifelines to port and starboard. (6) The drop was reasonably accurate, and it was not long before the dinghy crew had gained the comparatively roomy comfort of the lifeboat to begin the actual sea trial.
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