SAFETY IN THE AIR

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19721, 11 December 1926, Page 20 (Supplement)

SAFETY IN THE AIR

AUTOMATIC PARACHUTES. A FRENCHMAN’S SUGGESTION. The recent air disasters have brought forth a number of suggestions for increasing safety in the air. M. Henri Bardel, technical director of one of the biggest French air lines, has the cordial support of a number of experienced transport pilots in- his contention that not only should all passenger aeroplanes have a parachute for every passenger, but that tho pilot should be able to compel his passengers to use them. M. Bardel’s suggestion is that each .seat in an aeroplane should be so fitted that by pressing a lever the pilot could turn it over, thus flinging the passenger out of the machine, whether he wished to go or not. Of course, with this system every passenger would be attached to a parachute, the straps of which could have automatic locks so that the passenger could neither detach himself from it nor use it without the pilot’s consent. In case of a serious mishap which must inevitably end in a crash, the pilot could thus drop his passengers one after another, as a bomber drops his charges of explosives, and before they realised what was happened they would find themselves on solid ground with no worse harm than a certain amount of shock.