Hoop Skirt Parachute

What are the odds this would actually work? Maybe if you bailed out when your airplane was about twenty feet off the ground....

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Posted By: Paul - Tue Jun 09, 2015
Category: Inventions | Air Travel and Airlines | 1910s

Comments

1st the throw the inventor out of a plane and do a complete study of his condition upon ~~impact~~ landing.

Posted by Expat47 in Athens, Greece on 06/09/15 at 10:38 AM

Franz Reichelt did get his Darwin Award.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Reichelt

Posted by BMN on 06/09/15 at 11:04 AM

Excellent followup, BMN! Thanks!

Posted by Paul on 06/09/15 at 11:30 AM

https://youtu.be/FBN3xfGrx_U If you want to see the video.
It's never a good sign when the functioning of your parachute is measured by how deep a dent you made in the ground!

Posted by Captain DaFt on 06/09/15 at 06:32 PM

Germans were the first to use parachutes in WWI. The British did not issue them to pilots feeling it would make pilots un-manly and cowardly. Use of a pistol on your self however on the way down was manly. Typically British thought process during the period. Either way, dead is dead. I have yet to receive reports of sex in the afterlife.

Posted by Gator Guy on 06/09/15 at 08:02 PM

Only if you go to Heaven Gator Guy, only if you go to Heaven.

The success rate of this invention can be measured by the fact that it is not used today.

Posted by Patty in Ohio, USA on 06/10/15 at 07:14 AM

"I see London, I see France, ..."
Guys, you want to be sure to wear clean underpants with this.

Posted by KDP on 06/10/15 at 10:08 AM

Original article is from Popular Mechanics, January, 1911, p. 74 https://books.google.com/books?id=Sd4DAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA74&lpg=PA74&dq=Hoop-Skirt+Parachute&source=bl&ots=4Ak0iWIx0w&sig=gGEjB4_UX9gq323rMFptTk0HweE&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CD8Q6AEwA2oVChMI69LWy7KFxgIVCTiICh33sQBE#v=onepage&q=Hoop-Skirt Parachute&f=false

Posted by phritzg on 06/10/15 at 11:04 AM

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