I think you are applying the actions of experienced jumpers to pilots who are making their first ever jump, solo and in mid-battle.

They’ll pull that ring just as quickly as they can.

I read one combat memoir, though this time from a B17 crewman, that from memory ran.

“Once clear of the ship I remembered the drill for bailing out. I calmly counted down from ten to one, missing out nine through two, and yanked the handle for all I was worth.”

Moggy

Agreed but you also hear of pilots doing a 10 to 15,000 foot drop to get out of the combat area.

Ali

Good points Ali.
How would Bader’s false legs be attached ? Would they be held in place merely by straps (reasonably tight) around his legs above the knees? If this is the case then it seems very feasible that a leg could be dislodged by the jerk of an opening chute. Why didn’t he lose both? I seem to remember that Bader had one leg amputated below the knee and one above. Perhaps one stump provided better purchase than the other.
Ali’s point about how long he would have free-fallen before the chute opened – surely the aircraft would already be moving at a faster speed than the average free faller’s terminal velocity. Especially since this aircraft almost certainly had just performed a serious nose down ‘bunt’ having lost the tail.

Most jump ships travel faster than the skydiver will be falling on jump run.

If the jolt can break a skydivers training shoe lace and the nylon chin strap of a camera helmet then it’s quite a jolt (camera helmets have double nylon straps so are tougher than a normal helmet). On the deployment of a skydivers reserve the skydiver is at sub terminal velocity because you have to remember that the skydiver WANTS to get his/her reserve out as quickly as possible. A fighter pilot in a battle would’t deploy immediately as I am sure he didn’t want to be under canopy with all those bullets and fighters zooming around so at what minimum altitude would a Spitfire pilot deploy? If he fell away it’s very possible that he was at terminal velocity when he went for the pull a terminal opening of a round parachute would have seriously spanked him. If the skydiver, who’s lace and helmet strap broke at sub-terminal velocity then a terminal opening could quite possibly have ripped off the tin leg do you not think. I have done a terminal opening of a square reserve and the bruises were so bad that you could make out the clear shape of the leg strap buckle on my thigh for a few days afterwards. My square parachute has a slider which is to retard the opening and the round parachutes don’t have such a feature. If the terminal square opening spanked me, a round opening must have been seriously painful.

Ali

I know that.

I used to play League – which will probably come as no surprise to anyone who has met me. 😀

My uncle is a national ref with Union. Come from Yorkshire see. It’s in our blood.

Ali 😀

If I recall the brave old chap appeared quite bemused by the activity and was more interested in his beer!

I also remember thinking it odd how they glossed over the fate of the German pilot. They said he was hurt baling out/on the way down and died of his injuroes.

DS

I spoke to the director of the program (James Culter of Mentorn) and he said it wasn’t a deliberate ramming and was just a plain old mid air collision. Not playing down Ray Holmes as I think that someone who takes a fighter up in the dark to do battle in the air is a seriously brave man.

Ali

Don’t worry Hurrifan just think, with all that rotting rubbish we should soon be able too drive methane powered cars…. 😀
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Would you want to drive behind one though.

Ali

Not to mention the power and influence wielded by vested interests like the energy companies and the road transport lobby.

For example, UK transport policy has been effectively dictated for decades by the large construction firms that build motorways (That’s “freeways” to you ex-colonial chappies 😉 ) and, quite coincidentally, also donate large sums to the major political parties.

Maybe we shold ban money to save the environment. It all seems to come down to profit doesn’t it. 🙁

Ali

They tested the grease-powered car on Mythbusters. I believe it got a little less mileage than using gas, but it worked fine. All you’d have to do is find enough grease and strain it (they used grease taken from deep fryers at a fast-food joint) and you’re in business. Might not really be practical, but the fact that somebody made a car run on something other than gas or electricity was great.

Here’s an idea for hydroelectric power. You need two “oil rigs”. We’ll call them that because that’s the closest thing I can think of to what you’d need. The first is on your coastline. It’s the “receiver”. The second is out in the ocean over the top of a strong underwater current. Place the hydroelectric generators subsurface inside the underwater current. They generate power which is sent up to the rig overhead. It converts this to electricity, charging a massive power cell which is on a ship the size of a supertanker. The floating battery charges, then moves to the coastal platform to unload it’s charged cell, which is taken to a distribution station to give off the electricity to needy users. Put an empty “battery” on the boat, and send it back out to the plant for charging. The only question is, does an underwater current exist that’d be strong enough to make this work on a useable level?

I saw a sci-fi program where they had satellites in orbit with massive photo voltaic cells which collected the sunlight and “fired” it at collectors on the ground. Was wondering if one of you rocket scientists out there can tell me if this is practical.

Ali