Parachute use and fighter pilots

[PFFF]

While looking through back issues of "Over The Front" magazine there was a section of a translated German War Diary for Aviation for one month 1917.
There was a summary of 12 instances of German Observation balloons being shot down-yet the only injurues to the observers was one man with a fractured
thigh-he jumped too low.
1)Were German Pilots who were the only ones who wore parachutes 1917/18?
2) Is it true that ALlied Pilots were not allowed parachutes because it was feared that they would panic and abandon the plane too soon?

[Dan_San_Abbott]

PPPF:
Balloon observers were issued parachute by both sides and all services. All were satisfactory for balloon use. Germany issued the Heinecke Fallschirm as government furnished equipment and were delivered with the airplane. The first use was in April 1918 and were almost all fighter pilots used them at least as a seat cushion. I have a list of 69 events were pilots used in an attempt to save their lives. The harness design was inadequet for airspeeds of 120 mph. There were several failures where the harness failed when the parachute opened. The problem was the technology was not there at that time. Allied pilots were not issued parachutes. The British Air Ministry was of the opinion that RAF pilots would bailout if they were engaged. The germans were first and it saved lives. Ltn.Ernst Udet was one.
Blue skies,
Dan-San

[PFFF]

The British Air Ministry--so that was the source of pilot + parachute=bailout??
Did it ever dawn on the said ministry that while they could always replace a
plane, that it was much harder to find a good pilot replacement??
(training + experience can't be produced overnight in a flegling pilot)

[Dan_San_Abbott]

PPPF:
It was a truly sad comment on courage and sense of duty by RAF pilots and air crews. Suggest yoy read "No Parachute" by Arthur Gould Lee, Jarrolds Publishers (London) Ltd, 1968. Appendix "C" tells the story!! It was not until 1922 when the standard service emergency parachute was developed and proven and it became the world standard, the Irvin Seat Pack. Then the RAF adopted it as the RAF Standard.
Blue skies,
Dan-San
Dan

[rammjaeger]

PFFF,

the British Air Ministry was not alone with this inhumane and stupid behaviour in WWI.

The Russian inventor Gleb Jewgenjewitsch Kotjelnikow (1872-1944) worked since 1910 to develop a parachute for aviators. He succeeded in 1915 with the device RK-1 but the chief of the Russian Aviation Troop wrote on a bill concerning this matter:
"In general the parachute is a harmful thing for aviation because it is tempting the pilot to save himself with the parachute and to sacrifice the aircraft to annihilation."

[adrian roberts]

I'm not trying to excuse the attitude of the British Air Ministry and whichever RFC commanders opposed parachutes: but is it not true that Irvings parachute of 1922 [that Dan mentioned] was the first free-fall type? WW1 parachutes used static lines, so were of limited value in emergencies. The wearer had to be falling considerably faster than the a/c for the chute to deploy from its bag, so it was no good if the aircraft was diving or breaking up: and if it was spinning or tumbling the static line would become entangled.
True, Udet's life was saved by a parachute, but two of the other top ten German aces were killed when their parachutes failed to open - Lowenstein and Rumey. Both these suffered collisions, so their a/c would have been OOC.

Adrian

[Vin]

This was an age where High Command cheerfully sent men over the top to walk in rows in the face of machine gun fire and then seek to shoot as cowards those who could see the foolishness of the tactic and refused to engage in what amounted to suicide. Little wonder that parachutes were given such low priority. The modern mind, accustomed now to casualty free or minimal casualty wars, well, for US-UK-Australian forces anyway, wonders why, if a free fall parachute was available in 1922, more emphasis was not placed on its development during 1917 and 1918.

[Dan_San_Abbott]

Adrian Roberts:
You are technical correct, The Irvin was not the first free fall parachute, The Broadwick was. However, structurally it was no better that the the various static line balloon parachute being used.
The Irvin Seat Pack was the result of 4 years of testing by the U.S.Army Parachute Committee at McCook Field, Dayton Ohio. In 1918 when the Committee was formed at McCook, The Committee acquired all Military and civilian parachutes then in use. They then did a study of all these parachutes, from which came the U.S.Army S-1 seat pack parachute. Several inventions were made and patented by members of this Committee, the chief beneficary was Leslie Irvin. The members of the Committee established the parachute industry in the United States, Pioneer Parachute Co., Triangle Parachute Co. The Russel Parchute Co. And The Irvin Parachute Co. Irvin established factories,2 in the U.S.A., in England, France, Canada, Roumania and I believe the USSR. By 1925 the Irvin Seat pack was used by almost all air forces in the world.
blue skies,
Dan-San

[PFFF]

Those who refused to let pilots wear parachutes-how many of them were
pilots themselves??????????
Was the RK-1 a static line parachute?

[Dan_San_Abbott]

PFFF:
I don't know anything about the RK-1 parachute. Who, what, where and when. I am curious. I spent my entire adult life designing and making parachutes from the B-52 Drag chute to a light weight crew parachute (14 lbs and fully rated) for the Isreali Air Force. Of the RK-1, I know zip!!!
Blue skies,
Dan-San