Parachute use and fighter pilots

[rammjaeger]

I think it is possible to find more info about the inventor with Google using "Kotelnikov".
Info about the parachute itself is rather scetchy.

The principle seems not to require a static line, PFFF.

[rammjaeger]

A draft by the inventor

[rammjaeger]

The pictures come from a book by the (East)German historian Wilfried Kopenhagen "Lexikon Sowjetluftfahrt" (1986). On pages 131/132 the following entry is written [I try a translation]:

"Kotelnikow, Gleb Jewgenjewitsch: inventor of parachutes, born 18. (30.) Jan. 1872 Petersburg (today Leningrad [meanwhile Petersburg again]), died 22. Nov. 1944 Moscow. Finished the military school in Kiev 1884. K. - a lieutenant of the reserve of the artillery - did deal intensely with the construction of a Tornister (english knapsack??) - parachute because he had seen the death of one of Russias first pilots during a flight show in Petersburg in 1910. His efforts to introduce a parachute for airplanes resulted in a first device in 1911: the Tornisterfallschirm RK-1 (Russki, Konstruktzii Kotelnikowa - 1. Modell) was suited and he got a patent. The RK-1 was introduced in Russian aviation in WWI. [??]

[Other sources report the use was denied for pilots - see above - but either balloonist used it or the Bolsheviks allowed the use of parachutes later. R.]

A more comprehensive activity became possible for K. because of the many-sided promotion after the revolution in October 1917. The inventor derived some more advanced, technological and technical improved parachutes from his RK-1, e.g. in 1923 the half-rigid [?? other sources say a softer knapsack] RK-2 and 1924 the Tornisterfallschirm RK-3. K. was awarded with the order "Red Star" in 1924. Later he created several models of parachutes for freight."

So, hope that helps Dan-San and other interested people.
Sadly, I did not find more details about the parachute.

VBR
Rammjaeger

There is also a very little pic of the man - obviously with chute on his back - in the book but my available memory for postings at the Forum seems to run out.

[rammjaeger]

Looks like one of his last reports was translated by the US-Americans:

AD B201786, Stabilization of Fall in Delayed Opening Parachute Jumps, G. Kotelnikov, November 1943, 6 pp., Air Service Command (translation from the Russian)

Dan-San, this report was mentioned on another Forum and it was adviced:

"To get a copy of any of these reports, just send a letter to:

Defense Technical Information Center
Attn: DTIC-RSM
[Kelly D. Akers, FOIA Manager]
8725 John J. Kingman Road, Suite 0944
Fort Belvoir, VA 22060-6128"

[rammjaeger]

By the way which model used Adolphe Pégoud for his first jump with a parachute in 1913?

And a question remains open:
How many of the Austrian pilots flew with parachutes in summer and fall 1918?
I remember at least one report about a successful jump by an Austrian in August 1918.

[pvernon]

As a further note as to the thought process of the English High command durring this period, the English Navy did not use life perservers either.

[Dan_San_Abbott]

Rammjaeger:
Almost all parachutes designed and built up to 1918 were static line operated. The RK-1 also appears to be static line operated.Aside from the Broadwick, I don't know of any others. The major problem was there was data relative to stress of the opening forces versus velocity. It is my belief the design was trial and error until they got it right. A full understanding was not reached in the U.S.A. until after WW2 when the U.S.Army brought to the US all the rocket scientists and 4 parachute engineers. These four men contributed more to the science of parachutes than all who proceed them. I sat at there knees and listened intently and came away a helluva lot smarter.
Blue skies,
Dan-San