THE MOST DARING AIR FEAT

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 156, 17 March 1916, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE MOST DARING AIR FEAT

DROPPING TEN THOUSAND 1-fciLT IX A PARACHUTE Undoubtedly the most daring aeronautical feat on record was that performed by Lieut.-Col. E. M. Maitland, who commands the Airship Section of the Naval Air Service, and who recently jumped from a balloon flying over London at a height of 10,000 ft., descending by parachute. Hitherto, the record seems to have been held by that intrepid balloonist, Captain Baldwin, who in I*B7 claimed to have descended from a height of one mile (o,2Soft.i in just over three minutes. Colonel Maitland was fifteen minutes coming down, and he confesses that the most trying part of the experience for him was before the parachute opened. He-fell several liunrded feet dead weight and the suspense "seemed like an eternity," hut at last the parachute opened, and the descent continued steadily. The feat was the result of a discussion which took place concerning a certain official project, a question arising a* to whether a balloonist could make a safe descent from such a height. ''Someone," said Lieut.-Colonel Maitland, "mu>t make the experiment. I must know what will happen. I will take the jump myself, as there is only one person whom I have the eight to ask."

An extremely large parachute was used for the experiment, the deseent safly accomplished, and tlius the official query was satisfactorily solved. The experiment also demonstrated the fact that a parachute descentjn no way interferes with the stability of nu airship, so that a man could he landed after a long journey with reports while the airship continued its flight. This ;s by no means the first parachute descent which Colonel Maitlaml has made, for in October, 1913, he mad.e a descent from the airship Delta at a height of 1,800 ft. The airship en this occasion was travelling at twenty mile- an hour, and the lieutenantcolonel fell 300 ft. before the parachute opened, but he landed safely in the C'olne Reservoir at Aldershot.