Word: ripcords
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...apparatus had been carefully checked, Davis kissed his mother, father and sister goodby, waved to his friends, went up for his first test flight. At 6,000 ft. he stepped overside, fluttered a few seconds on his wings, pirouetting in the air currents. Then he pulled his ripcord...
Sohn got the idea for his flight three years ago when he began experimenting with body control in delayed-drop parachute jumps. He found that by "swimming" in air he could move 200 to 300 ft. in any direction before jerking his ripcord...
...slanted steeply downward, getting the "feel" of his wings. Bending his knees experimentally, he whipped over in an inside loop. Then he zoomed left & right, leveled off, dived, pulled up in a short climb. Satisfied he had succeeded in his experiment, he folded his wings, pulled the ripcord of his regular parachute at 6,000 ft., landed some three miles from his starting point. His flight had lasted 75 seconds. Next time he will use bigger wings, fasten a tank of smoke-producing chemicals to one leg so spectators can follow his course...
...daredevil then wangled a flight in a National Guard plane. He jumped despite the profane imprecations of the pilot, dropped 1,000 ft. before pulling the ripcord, landed unhurt on the frozen Charles River, was arrested by police for leaving an airplane "for a feat of daring." First victim of the Massachusetts law which forbids any but emergency parachute jumps, he was given a three-month sentence which was later suspended...
...comrade from Moscow Airdrome. Mile after mile the plane climbed, into atmosphere -34° F. At 4½ mi. Pilot Evceyef jumped. Instead of opening his 'chute, he plummeted for more than two minutes until he was only 500 ft. above the ground. Then he yanked his ripcord. Said he afterward: ''The jolt was so great that for a moment everything was dark. Then the sun shone green. I made a normal landing with my parachute [in a forest] and walked back to the airfield where they greeted me with shouts of delight because they thought...