Parachutes were not issued to pilots

[A.A.Savery]

This thread has derived from a previous topic of mine on World War One pilots.

 

It seems that fighter pilots right up to the end of the Great War, did not have parachutes,

although Germany had them by 1918.

Several theories have emerged as to why this was:

One being that they were too heavy for the small fighter aircraft.

Another is that the pilot would have been too tempted to bail out while being attacked.

Quote from Wikipedia: Ironically, only a few aircrew had the luxury of parachutes, due in part to a mistaken belief they inhibited aggressiveness (and in part to early aircraft being unable to lift their significant weight).

Unquote.

There is evidence that forms of the parachute had existed since the 12 century with the Chinese using modified umbrellas to perform stunts.

Also with the production of silk being again credited to the Chinese at least 2,000 years ago, it makes me wonder why the development of the parachute took so long after the invention of the aeroplane.

Any theories or evidence on this would be very welcome.

Cheers,

Tony

[Rob B]

I was always under the belief that by giving aircrew a parachute it then tempered their resolve to stay and do battle with the enemy. I don't think cost entered their minds.

Rob

[Dolphin]

Tony

The former No 46 Sqn Camel pilot Air Vice Marshal A S G Lee devoted some time to researching the reason for the non-issue of parachutes to Great War airmen, and there's a section on this in his book No Parachute.

In essence, if the effort had been made, it would have been possible to develop a small parachute that could be carried in an aeroplane, but there wasn't much official interest. Lee was unable to find any written evidence of anyone in authority saying that parachutes might lessen the resolve of airmen; it was more a case of some senior officers (who had often flown in combat in the early years of the War) tending to think along the lines of "We didn't have parachutes in our day, so I can't see why they need them now". The time and effort to be spent developing small parachutes could be devoted to something else.

It's a sad story, but it has to be put in the context of the daily dreadful losses suffered by all arms of the services. The airmen were just a comparitively small number of casualties to be added to a massive list.

Regards

Gareth

[John_Hartley]

Gareth

Does the book touch on, what I recall as being fact, that balloon crews were issued with parachutes?

[Adrian Roberts]

it makes me wonder why the development of the parachute took so long after the invention of the aeroplane.

Parachutes didn't take long to be tried out after the development of any suitable type of aircraft - Andre Garnerin jumped from a balloon in 1797; Adolphe Pegoud jumped from an aeroplane in 1913.

Observation Balloon crews certainly had parachutes in WW1. They were occassionally carried by German airship crews, but generally left behind to save weight, and because it was considered that they would be of little value if used over the sea, and if an airship caught fire there would be no time to strap a parachute on.

The other problem is that WW1 parachutes were of the static line type, opened by a line attached to the aircraft, in the manner still used by paratroops. This was no use if the aeroplane was dropping fast as the parachutist has to be falling considerably faster to pull the parachute out of its pack, and if the aircraft was spinning it would get tangled up. Free-fall parachutes were not invented until 1922, by Irving in the US.

It was probably for this reason that two of the top ten German aces were killed when they took to parachutes that did not open - Eric Lowenhardt and Fritz Rumey, though Udet was saved by a parachute.

Adrian

[Dolphin]

Does the book touch on, what I recall as being fact, that balloon crews were issued with parachutes?

John

Lee was primarily concerned with the lack of parachutes for pilots and aeroplane observers. As Adrian has said, balloon observers were issued with static line Calthrop parachutes. These were bulky affairs that weren't suited for aeroplane use.

The inventor of the Calthrop parachute, Mr E R Calthrop, long argued during the War that compact parachutes would save the lives of airmen when their aircraft were doomed to crash, but to no avail. The members of the Air Board didn't think that parachutes were either necessary or useful, and were convinced that pilots in action didn't want them, so that's where the discussion stopped. Perhaps needless to say, the views of operational airmen at the Fronts were rather different to those of their controllers in the UK.

The Air Board did agree to work starting on parachute development in January 1918, and the model that Calthrop had proposed in July 1916 was adopted (with only a minor modification) in September 1918. They did not make it to the Front before the Armistice.

It's depressing reading.

Gareth

[John_Hartley]

Thanks

[A.A.Savery]

First of all my thanks to Gareth for the information on this book which is one that I shall definitely look out for.

Also thanks to Rob, John and Adrian for their inputs.

Obviously as pilot, Lee knew what he was talking about and I get the impression that

military stuffiness played a large part in this story.

Lives were of little value so long as there were enough men being trained at home to replace the ones dying on the battle grounds. Also the economics of developing and fitting aircraft to enable parachutes to be carried would have to have been a consideration.

Had they had the option, I wonder how much faith pilots would have had in a parachute opening up?

I can imagine it being quite a scary occasion having to use one for the first time, considering that there was not yet a free-fall parachute available. They would probably have preferred to try to crash-land if at all possible, pride also being a factor.

I don’t suppose there is a definite answer to all of these questions, and clearly there are a number of factors involved. Nevertheless, this is proving to be a most interesting discussion and I thank you all again for your participation.

Please do send in any more ideas on this topic.

Cheers,

Tony

[Lorraine CJ]

Prefering to crash land seems to have been not only a question of pride, but the least dangerous resort, if you take into account the second sentence below:

"The balloon observers were the only people routinely outfitted with parachutes, which had been available since 1915. The parachutes had a failure rate just high enough to ensure that observers jumped only in dire emergencies."

LCj

[Myrtle]

I came across this article in an August 1918 edition of a West London newspaper a few years ago.

Myrtle

[A.A.Savery]

Prefering to crash land seems to have been not only a question of pride, but the least dangerous resort, if you take into account the second sentence below:

"The balloon observers were the only people routinely outfitted with parachutes, which had been available since 1915. The parachutes had a failure rate just high enough to ensure that observers jumped only in dire emergencies."

LCj

Hi LCj

I would be interested to know where you are quoting from?

Though it seems to leave no doubt as to how primitive parachutes had remained since experiments by the Chinese in the 12th century.

The following also shows how little progress had been made in more than a hundred years before the Great War.

In 1797 (October 22), Andrew Garnerin was the first person recorded to jump with a parachute without a rigid frame. Garnerin jumped from hot air ballons as high as 8,000 feet in the air. Garnerin also designed the first air vent in a parachute intended to reduce oscillations. http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blparachute.htm

Thanks,

Tony

[A.A.Savery]

I came across this article in an August 1918 edition of a West London newspaper a few years ago.

Myrtle

Hi Myrtle,

This is a tragic story illustrating just how much research was still needed at that time.

That's a real gem of a newspaper cutting you have contributed!

Many thanks,

Tony

[fitzee]

 

more on the subject

[A.A.Savery]

fitzee said:

more on the subject

Thanks for that link Fitzee.

I hadn't seen that one yet.

Cheers,

Tony