Word: ripcords
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...parachute jumping at the Army's Chanute Field, Rantoul, Ill., and Private Harold L. Osborne was being borne aloft to make his final qualifying jump. Nervously he rehearsed his instructions to "bail out," to count to ten while he hurtled downward clear of the ship, then pull the ripcord of his 'chute. At a nod from the pilot of the plane, Private Osborne clambered half out of the cockpit, glanced once at the earth 2,000 ft. below, was seized by the "jitters." He dared not let go, he dared not turn back; so he reached...
...feet ahead"; but he knew he was near the Cuyamaca Mts. To try a blind landing would be insane. The instruments froze; the magneto began to misbehave. Pilot Nettleton made his decision. He leveled off, throttled down, cut his switch, rolled out the door, waited and pulled his ripcord. Pilot Nettleton landed near a ranch-house in Pine Valley (in time to share Thanksgiving dinner with the occupants) -no speed champion, but possibly the youngest member of the Caterpillar Club...
Killed. Harvey Powers, 47, "all around daredevil" (flagpole sitting, air clowning, skyscraper climbing); when, shot from a cannon on an airplane over the ocean at Atlantic City, his parachute failed to open. He had been doing the stunt daily for five weeks, waiting longer and longer before pulling the ripcord...