Why is the parachute important
History of the Parachute
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in the early years of our present
century a group of government and
military man gathered to evaluate the
possibilities of a new vehicle for use
by the army here the air age began many
of the early designs were not the most
reliable aircraft in point of fact some
proved themselves to be no aircraft at
all
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but man was determined to fly and the
beginning of the air age was also
inevitably the beginning of the
widespread development of the parachute
true even as late as World War 1 most
American pilots did not wear parachutes
but as air warfare developed the French
and the Germans made them regulation
issue among their pilots
in the years just after World War one
the parachute in America remained a
device for barnstorming stuntmen but by
the early 1930s Russia looking ahead to
the time when she would need shock
troops for her global plans began
experimenting with the parachute for
military use this experimenting was not
confined to human parachutists but
included vehicles and weapons the
airplanes at their disposal were crude
but their vision of the future role of
the parachute in military operations was
clear and even in these so-called
peacetime years every means of
increasing communist striking power was
to be explored
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they worked out an early method for
cargo drops in which the parachute was
dropped before the cargo
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they even tried dropping man vehicles
without benefit of parachute but though
some attempts were successful it became
clear that the parachute was the most
practical means of air-to-ground
delivery
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even before the actual beginning of
World War two the parachutes new and
more deadly role was put to the test by
the Germans on a larger scale than their
earlier drops into Norway the Nazis
airborne operations in the early
blitzkrieg thrusts in Europe set a
pattern they were the first to mount
really large-scale successful airborne
attacks as they dropped into the
Netherlands and scored a major success
in the parachute blitz of the island of
Crete this highly profitable Nazi
paratrooper attack on Crete established
clearly in military thinking the
importance of this kind of highly mobile
striking force
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by the time America began messing her
forces in England for the invasion of
Normandy our own paratroop units were in
being highly trained and formatively
able at their work the time for using
the men of America's Airborne Infantry
had come and the men were ready during
World War two the parachute found a
great many other uses vast areas of the
enemy shipping lanes were seeded with
mines from the air with parachutes to
slow their descent and prevent
detonation from landing shot toward the
end of the war the Germans came up with
an unusual ribbon chute designed to act
as an air brake for dive bombers and
gliders
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the Russians continue their
experimenting too they worked out a
complicated two-stage canopy which would
bring their paratroopers down at greater
speed a smaller canopy slowed the fall
for most of the descent then a larger
square shaped canopy open to cushion the
final approach to the ground it was
interesting and it worked but it never
came into widespread use
in Korea techniques for parachute
delivery of huge masses of combat
material to the front lines were
developed to an almost exact science
special shoots big enough to drape the
suburban home had been developed shoots
big enough to handle jeeps artillery
even light armor the big nylon umbrellas
had brought a great change in the
concept of military supply tons of
essential combat material could be
delivered over distances that would have
been out of the question in terms of
land transport the importance of the
parachute in making possible this
high-speed large-scale delivery of
material is virtually impossible to
exaggerate
with the development of supersonic
aircraft parachute escape techniques had
to change the seat ejection parachute
was about to come into being initial
testing involved men as well as machines
seat ejection would have to be swift but
not so Swift that pilots could not bear
the acceleration stresses during world
war two the nazis had worked on an
ejection seat design and captured german
film showed us something of the problems
they had encountered we didn't intend
for this kind of thing to happen with
our design so the testing the designing
and refining went on in the search for a
way to give a pilot and his parachute a
protective package as self ejecting
package which would get him clear of a
supersonic jet in a hurry and with
safety
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it was a tough problem but the solution
was found and the ejection seat
principle was proven in practice
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in still another way the parachute has
added a margin of safety to the flying
of jet aircraft special braking chutes
are standard equipment on many Jets
giving pilots the ability to land safely
on a much shorter runway than they could
otherwise use
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in the field of guided missiles this
same adaptation of the parachute has
found wide use the Regulus supersonic
submarine missile is a good example the
missile is recoverable because it can be
guided to a landing by escort aircraft
and because it uses a rugged nylon
canopy to slow it to a safe unswerving
stop once it touches down the Army's
drone reconnaissance crap
controlled from the ground can fly over
enemy terrain taking such detailed
motion pictures as these for use by
field commanders and then return to base
to be used again and again because it
carries its own recovery parachute to
bring it and its cameras down gently
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para rescue teams need special
parachuting skills and they practice
them often for instance the right timing
for slipping the harness in a water
descent comes only with experience or
take a jump over thick woods to battle a
forest fire
a man needs know how to land in the
treetops and come out of it in one piece
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in countless other situations as well
where relief could come only from the
air the parachute is brought supplies
aid and comfort to those cut off from
help recently a lot of attention has
been given to parachuting as a sport
both military and civilian skydiving is
called and clubs have sprung up
everywhere perhaps it isn't likely to
replace baseball as the national pastime
but few sports fans can claim the
thrills that parachuting gives the
skydiver
the parachute has truly come a long way
from the early days of the barnstorming
Daredevils to its hundreds of uses in
the world of today the parachute has
brought into being a whole new field of
techniques and given a new type of
fighting man to the modern army the
airborne soldier of today must know
everything that classic infantryman had
to know and a great deal more and the
added training the added mobility the
added striking power which has come from
the full development of the parachutes
ability to deliver both assault troops
and combat supplies forms a central
element of the fast-moving hard-hitting
pin Tomic army concept even with the
Space Age opening up ahead it seems safe
to speculate that they are here to stay
they're dependable versatile umbrellas
of the sky
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