X-type parachute
The X-Type was a round canopy parachute that was developed by the two manufacturers Irvin from the USA and GQ Parachute Company from Great Britain for the paratroopers of the British Army in World War II and was in use for many years afterwards.
development
The first parachutes used by the British paratroopers for test and training purposes were the Irvin parachutes used by pilots as a rescue parachute. They were designed so that in an emergency they could be opened manually by the pilot after exiting the aircraft. In order to be able to use the Irvin parachute in a row jump at low heights, the handle on the harness and the aircraft were connected with a pull-up cord . With this makeshift construction, the first soldiers were trained at the Ringway Parachute School near Manchester and 135 jumps were successfully completed until the first fatal accident occurred due to an improperly opened parachute canopy.
During the subsequent prohibition of jumping, Sir Raymond Quilter and James Gregory, who had been manufacturing parachutes with their company GQ Parachute Company since 1934, were contacted. At that time, Quilter had developed a parachute with a packing tube and a pull-up cord. It therefore only took him a few days to adapt his concept for an automatically opening jump parachute for the parachute canopy and harness made by the manufacturer Irvin with a packing tube and packing bag. After several hundred dummies were thrown and the instructors made test jumps that followed, a parachute was created that was hardly changed over the next few decades. The X-Type parachute - also known as Statichute at the time - had a sensibly integrated pull-up line with a packing bag and thus an opening process that was superior to the American and German parachutes of that time.
With the X-Type, in contrast to the original Irvin model, the suspension lines were first pulled out of the packing bag and tightened before the parachute canopy was pulled out of the packing bag. In contrast to other parachute patterns, this resulted in a lower opening impact. This also reduced the risk of incorrect opening of the parachutes, because neither parts of the canopy nor the jumper could get between the suspension lines. Because of these advantages, the X-Type is considered to be the most reliable parachute of the Second World War. By February 1943, there were only 26 fatal accidents out of 92,000 jumps, even though the British paratroopers were only equipped with reserve parachutes in the mid-1950s . The soldiers' confidence in the parachute was so great that during the Suez Crisis in Egypt they preferred to jump with more ammunition than with the reserve parachute that had just been introduced.
construction
The X-Type parachute consists of the four main assemblies, a parachute canopy, packing bag, packing cover and harness. The parachute canopy, made up of 28 strips with 4 fields each, measured 8.5 m in diameter and was initially made of silk. A 56 cm wide opening was left at the apex to avoid swaying. The 28 suspension lines with a length of 7.6 m had a minimum tensile strength of 181 kg and were connected to the harness via four D-rings. The packing sack enclosed the packed parachute canopy and was connected to the apex opening of the canopy at a breakaway strap, which tore as soon as the suspension lines and the parachute canopy were stretched to their full length. The suspension lines were neatly looped under a large flap of the packaging sack. The pull cord was attached to the packing sack. The packing cover was firmly sewn to the harness on the back of the jumper and enclosed the packing sack with its four fabric flaps. The predetermined breaking tape with low tensile strength secured the flaps until it tore when it cracked and released the packaging sack.
The harness consisted of a seat belt with shoulder, back, chest and leg straps. The cylindrical quick release fastener was just above the abdomen and secured the leg and chest straps. To open, you only had to turn and press the top of the buckle and then you could simply get out of the harness. On the post-war models, the quick release had an orange stripe on the front. In contrast to the first model, the quick release also released all straps and did not retain a shoulder strap in the lock, as was the case with the first model. The harness was made from different colored fabrics and seams during the production period. If the belts were first made of white material, they were later given a brown color.
When the Japanese entered the war , the supply of silk became so poor that the parachute canopy was made of cotton fabric with the special Ramex weave. At the same time, the parachutes began to be colored in a light brown shade and even models were made with a stained camouflage pattern. These were particularly suitable for the jumps of the Special Operations Executive (SOE) behind enemy lines. An X-Type version with a 9.75 m wide canopy was also developed for this purpose.
From the end of the Second World War, the X-Type was made of nylon . This increased safety, since until then the canopy would not unfold when jumping with an umbrella that was not packed completely dry. With the processing of the less strongly sticking nylon, these incidents could be greatly reduced.
The parachutist was able to control the X-Type with limited slip by pulling on one of the four main straps. This pulled the parachute canopy down in one area so that air escaped on the opposite side and a little propulsion was achieved. The rate of descent was around 7 m / s.
use
It was not until 1955 that the British paratroopers introduced a reserve parachute based on the X-Type main parachute, for which the harness received two additional D-rings at the front. The main reason why reserve umbrellas were not issued during World War II was mainly due to the drop plane used. Because of the great shortage of transport aircraft in the Royal Air Force , soldiers in training and action jumped out of a floor hatch on the Armstrong Whitworth Whitley bomber. This "Whitley hole" was so narrow that a reserve parachute could not be carried in front of the chest. The decision was also made against a spare wing because of the low landing height and reliability of the X-Type and probably also because of the production costs of £ 60 and the production effort.
In the mid-1960s, the X-Type was replaced as the main parachute by the direct further development of the PX-Type with a larger parachute canopy. As a reserve parachute, the PR7 Reserve did not replace the X-Type until 1981. With the X-Type not only the British paratroopers and members of the Special Air Service jumped , but also the men and women of the SOE. After World War II, many foreign soldiers and agents who had served in the SOE or special forces brought their skydiving experience and knowledge of the X-Type parachute back to their home countries. As a result, many countries used this parachute to set up their own parachute troops, including: Australia , Belgium , France , India , Israel , Canada , Kenya , New Zealand , Rhodesia .
The parachutes could be stored in the packed state for 2 months and a maximum of 25 jumps could be performed with them. For the British armed forces, the parachutes were packed by the women of the Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF), which took them about 25 minutes per parachute.
See also
- Parachutes of the Wehrmacht in World War II
- Japanese parachutes in World War II
literature
- Howard P. Davies: British Parachute Forces 1940-45 . Arco Publishing, New York 1974.
- Gregor Ferguson: The Paras 1940-84 . Osprey Publishing, Oxford 2004.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Development of the Statichute . Retrieved October 24, 2012.
- ↑ Parachute packers . Retrieved October 24, 2012.
- ↑ Ronald M. Buffkin: Assault Gliders: A Reexamination . Fort Leavenworth 1991, p. 27.
- ↑ X-Type in the Imperial War Museum . Retrieved October 25, 2012.
- ^ Gregor Ferguson: The Paras 1940-84 , Osprey Publishing, Oxford, 2004, p. 4.
- ↑ Bern Horn, Michel Wyczynski: Tip of the Spear: An Intimate Account of the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion 1942–1945. Dundurn Press, Toronto 2002, p. 144.
- ↑ Paradata X-Type . Retrieved October 25, 2012.
- ^ Howard P. Davies: British Parachute Forces 1940-45 , Arco Publishing, New York 1974, p. 21.