Page 20 - October 2018

First required to do a pull-off drop. In this the
parachutist, wearing his parachute in its pack on
his back, stands on a little platform fixed at the
rear part of the wing of some fairly large
aeroplane. When signaled to do so by the
officer in charge, who may be the pilot, the
parachutist pulls the ripcord while standing on
the platform and holds on to the strut in front of
him. The ripcord openes the pack, the
parachute streams out, is filled with air, and
instantly lugs the parachutist from his perch.
The pull-off type of drop is rather easier and
asafer to make than the free fall. When free
falls are being done for exhibition or
experimental purposes, the parachutist wears a
spare emergency parachute.
But failures are few and far between.
They have occurred in the past, but usually they
have been traceable to faulty packing or to
some fault in design since eliminated. Freak
types of parachutes have been tried
occasionally.
A design was once got out for an aeroplane
cabin which could be bodily detached from the
rest of the machine and allowed to come down,
with all the passengers inside, suspended from a
parachute; and a parachute has alos been used
for an entire aeroplane and tried successfully.
But usually the bulk and weight of such devices
precludes their general adoption. The individual
parachute, however, has proved its worth many
times over; it is certain to be retained in all the
world’s air forces in the future, and is likely to
be adopted for commercial aeroplanes.

EXPERT PARACHUTIST
Below is Leading Aircraftsman Dobbs, who made many fine
parachute drops gefore he met his end while engaged on the
sport of balloon jumping. Fir which he is seen equipped in the
photograph.
PARASOLS ON PARADE
One of the most spectacular and highly appreciated items in the annual
Royal Air force pageant at Hendon is the parachute display, both
human and dummy. The latter provides an inanimate spectacle
comparable with the Russian display illustrated above. The risk of
collision in the air then forbade the use of human loads, and dummies
were employed intead, but even so the spectacle is fit to be compared
with the Russian mass-jump