The Winslow mail., 1925-05-26
FALLING A MILE
FOR AN EASILY
EARNED DIPLOMA

For unequaled simplicity IN grad
uation exercises, the United States
army parachute school at Chanute
field, Rantoul, H., probably takes
the worlds prize To win the COW
eted diploma at the end of a six
weeks intensive course, the stu
dent is required to do but two
things and neither Of them is
writing an essay or speaking a
piece.
Instead he folds up parachute
and takes his stand on the wing Of
a giant Martin bomber. The plane
climbes a mile in the air, and, DIT
a signal from the instructor, the
student pulls the rip cord Of his
chute and is yanked off into space,
Some two minutes later the ground
rises up and bumps him-and the
first half of his graduation eXer-
cises is over. The second half con-
sists of refoIding the parachute and
taking. a seat in the after cockpit
of a De Haviland plane The craft
goes up a mile. and at a signal
from the pilot, the student climbs
over the side of the fuselage, takes
deep breath, let's go of the ship,
gives a lusty kick with his feet and
falls backward into space. After
sufficient time has passed to in
sure that he is clear Of the air.
planes tail, he pulls the rip cord,
the parachute, if properly folded,
opens, and some two minutes later
the ground rises up and hits the
student again. Parachute jumping
is not dangerous, at least anyone
connected with the school will tell
you so, and some of them have
jumped so many times they have
lost count of the total There is
no loss of consciousness at any
time during a jump, even on the
first trial The sensation, all
jumpers agree, is that of settling
back into an Incredibly deep and
soft feather bed No feeling of
falling accompanies the drop, AMI
when the parachute snaps open
there is no jerk. Instead, the har
ness tightens and the jumper, who
is usually falling in a horizontal
position or head down, is righted. |
A slow oscillation, like that Of a
giant clock pendulum, follows.
The distance from the waist
belt on the jumper to the top of the +
parachute, when open, is thirty
two feet, so the man swings easily !
at the end of his supporting ropes.
AS the chute settles toward the
ground, the jumper has time to en-
joy the view and call to those be-
low. The only exciting part of the
jump is the last $50 feet or SO. |
Higher up the view is so broad that
the jumper feels he is barely drift
ing downward, though his rate of
descent is approximately sixteen
feet per second. But when he gets
within $50 to 200 feet of the ground
appears to leap right up to meet
him. His descent actually has
grown no faster-the illusion is
entirely mental. There is barely
time to draw up the feet and bend
the knees for an easy landing when
the thing is over.
The actual force of the fall-re-
CARELESS of the height from which
the Jump is made-is about equal
to jumping off a railroad flat car,
or at least that is true on calm
day. If the wind is blowing, drift
ing the parachute before it, the
force of the fall is equal to jumping
from flat car on a train moving
at a speed equal to the wind We
locity In other words, jump on
day when there is a twenty-mile
breeze is equivalent to jumping
from flat car going twenty miles
an hour.
The real thrillers among para
chute jumps are those made in
emergencies where the flyer was
forced to abandon a crippled plane.
The elect who have done that be-
long to aviation's most exclusive
organization-the Caterpillar club.
One of the most thrilling of all
occurred in March of this year,
when two planes collided at an al
titude of 5000 feet over Kelly
Field, Texas land both pilots leaped
and landed safely. The planes
were part of a squadron of nine
ships engaged in battle practice,
chasing an observation plane. They
were tumbling and circling around
in a. whirling maze-what the flyer
calls dog fight-when two of the
ships crashed together with such
force the wreckage remained
locked Cadet Charles A. Lindberg,
plotting one, slipped off his safety
belt and leaped. Lieut.. G. d. Nc
Allister, in the other ship, followed
suit Both pulled their rip cords
after dropping several hundred
feet and the parachutes opened.
The wrecked ships shot past them
as they fell and landed in a flaming
mass. Strange to say, few
scratches were the only injuries
received by the flyers.
The army parachute costs $500,
measures twenty-four feet across
when open, and is attached to the
wearer by twenty-five stout silk
ropes, twelve of the shrouds going
down to one shoulder, where they
are sewn in the harness, and thir-
teen to the other. The thirteenth