PARACHUTE JUMP

Wairarapa Times-Age, 9 April 1938, Page 11

PARACHUTE JUMP

FRENCHMAN’S PERFORMANCE.

DELAYED DROP RECORf). What may prove to be a world record for a delayed parachute drop has oeen made by the French airman, James Williams.

Ascending at Chartres, he left the aeroplane at a height of 27,550 ft and dropped to within 1046 ft of the ground before he opened his parachute. The intervening 26,504 ft was covered in 2 min 20sec (about 128 miles an hour). This is believed to beat the record set up by the Soviet parachutist Edmokinow, who was killed. Edmokinow dropped from a height of 26,574 ft to within 657 ft of the ground before he opened his parachute. The delayed drop of 25,917 ft was accomplished in 2min 29sec. Delayed drop parachute jumping is a stunt, says an aviation correspondent. It serves no useful purpose, though its practice has disproved several theories about what happened to a human being falling through space.

It has been shown that the rush of air' does not suffocate; that the falling man can breathe normally, move his arms and legs without difficulty, that his senses remain normal, and that by using his hands as fins he can alter the course of his fall.

General Starace, secretary of the Fascist Party, has announced that there are now 7,000,000 young' people between the ages of six and 21 in the Fascist pre-military organisations. Flying fish were observed off the Noises at the week-end by Mr A. W. B. Powell, conchologist at the Auckland War Memorial Museum. Mr Powell expressed the opinion that the exceptionally warm temperatures of the sea this season have brought many other types of visiting fish off the coast, including several varieties of swordfish and tuna.