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Part of the problem with the parachutes of the day was that they were quite bulky and believed to be a hazard to safe flight.
According to my husband, a retired airline pilot, WWI pilots did carry pistols, with which to shoot themselves if need be. Planes caught fire all too frequently and a bullet in the head was better than to be burning while your plane fell to earth.
A little more information ->Parachutes
In World War One countless balloonists and scores of pilots rescued themselves in perilous situations. The Germans were the first aerial combatants to realize it was an enormous waste of personnel to place a soldier in an extraordinarily risky situation without a life-saving alternative. However, that realization was not immediate with the start of hostilities. Nonetheless, the Germans learned quickly and took hasty measures to save much-needed pilots and balloon observers. Later, much later, the Allies reluctantly reached the same decision.
With the advent of aerial warfare, Allied air commanders were opposed to providing parachutes to pilots, worried that wearing a parachute might encourage early, unnecessary abandonment of only slightly damaged aircraft; after all, aircraft were at a premium, but there were a lot of military men who wanted to pilot flying machines. It certainly was a more glamorous aspect of war. Implementation was another matter, and a great deal of time was needed before parachutes could be manufactured and supplied and before lives could be saved. Balloon-type parachutes were available but the pilots refused to use them for a variety of reasons. When released from a speeding airplane, a parachute could rip in the windblast or snag in the airplane's tail. Falling at the same rate of speed as the pilot, the plane could collide with the falling man. It was also possible for the parachute to get tangled in the propeller blades. Many pilots considered it their duty to go down with the ship or to ride the crippled airplane in for a crash landing.
That is the link that Avshar tried to provide but his version didn't work.
Keeping in mind that Avshar was providing that link to establish the frequent use of parachutes by German pilots of fixed wing aircraft, we must question whether Avshar bothered to read it first. It states:
Quote:
They were attached to the balloon rigging and all the observer had to do in theory was to jump out and his falling mass would snatch the parachute from its container and the parachute would open. As the war continued the use of the parachute became an accepted and trusted method to save lives. No such device was considered appropriate for aviators and crews to fixed wing aircraft.
Under what possible interpretation is the above evidence that "plenty" of German pilots were using them?
There is plenty of solid information out there but it is in books which required reading not quickey copy-paste from the Internet which seems to be how the History forum is going these days.
According to my husband, a retired airline pilot, WWI pilots did carry pistols, with which to shoot themselves if need be. Planes caught fire all too frequently and a bullet in the head was better than to be burning while your plane fell to earth.
A little more information ->Parachutes
I've always wondered about that "pistol for burning pilot" idea. Personally, i'd prefer to jump out of plane and fall to my death as it would be less painful than shooting yourself and gravely wounding perhaps even paralysing for a short while and you can't use your hands, not to mentions spiraling down like a roller coaster on steroids at the same time.
That is the link that Avshar tried to provide but his version didn't work.
Keeping in mind that Avshar was providing that link to establish the frequent use of parachutes by German pilots of fixed wing aircraft, we must question whether Avshar bothered to read it first. It states:
Under what possible interpretation is the above evidence that "plenty" of German pilots were using them?
Wow, seriously? Did you even scroll down the page at all? The next section which is just below that first little bit about balloons shows a large list of pilots in the German air force who used parachutes. I know you are trying to prove a point but at least look at the page before dismissing it entirely. I really don't understand why anyone would refuse to accept that German pilots towards the end of the war were using parachutes. I had no trouble finding this page after a five minute search and i could probably have found more but i thought that would be enough.
Wow, seriously? Did you even scroll down the page at all? The next section which is just below that first little bit about balloons shows a large list of pilots in the German air force who used parachutes. I know you are trying to prove a point but at least look at the page before dismissing it entirely. I really don't understand why anyone would refuse to accept that German pilots towards the end of the war were using parachutes. I had no trouble finding this page after a five minute search and i could probably have found more but i thought that would be enough.
Sorry, the list began with balloon parachute jumps and I took the entire list to be just balloonists.
The list is 40 names and twelve of them perished as a consequence of chute failures, all between mid July and November 1st, 1918.
Because your first attempt at the link was a dead end, and because you were not quoting from your link, I was suspecting that you were bluffing your way through. Now it is clear that you were not, and as I noted, my interest here has been adding knowledge, not trying to win some fight.
So...thank you for bringing this to my attention and I apologize for the misunderstandings.
So, the correct statement now would be that parachutes were not used in fixed wing aircraft until the final three months of the war, and then by the German side only.
I'd like to know more.
And there is the one bit of curiosity, why did the author of the linked page, if he or she was about to publish a list of German pilots who exited fixed wing aircraft, write in the introductory paragraph..
Quote:
. No such device was considered appropriate for aviators and crews to fixed wing aircraft.
???
That certainly contributed to my confusion in this matter.
No problem here. doss1's link "parachutes" also lists at the bottom of the article a little on the German use of Parachutes in fixed wing aircraft. As to the article i provided having that line you quoted, i think that was meant for the beginning and middle of the war before the Germans started getting desperate to hold onto their aces. Their pilots, like they did in ww2, were forced to keep flying regardless of how many missions they went on. If they had done the smart thing in either war and called back the aces to train the newbies like the allies did i doubt there would have been a consideration of the use of parachutes at that stage in the war. Their air force would have been much more effective as well. Glad they had such short sighted commanders for their air force.
Their pilots, like they did in ww2, were forced to keep flying regardless of how many missions they went on. If they had done the smart thing in either war and called back the aces to train the newbies like the allies did i doubt there would have been a consideration of the use of parachutes at that stage in the war. Their air force would have been much more effective as well. Glad they had such short sighted commanders for their air force.
Looking at the attrition list for the top five aces of Germany, Great Britain and France, the Germans did suffer the highest loss rate. Manfred von Richthofen 80 kills, shot down and killed, most likely by groundfire, possibly by Captain Roy Brown.
Ernst Udet 62 kills, survived the war...and is one of those on the list for having parachuted from his plane. Erich Loewenhardt 56 kills, died as a result of a mid air collision with German pilot. Werner Voss 48 kills, shot down in most famous dogfight of the war, single handedly taking on seven SE 5A's led by Brit Ace James McCudden.
Josef Jacobs 48 kills, survived the war.
Great Britain
Billy Bishop 72 kills, survived the war Edward Mannock 61 kills, killed by ground fire.
Raymond Collenshaw 61 kills, survived the war James McCudden 57 kills, died in accident during routine take off
Andrew Proctor 54 kills, survived the war
France
Rene Fonk 75 kills, survived the war Georges Guynemer 53 kills, shot down and died, specifics unknown
Charles Nungesser 47 kills, survived the war...barely. He was shot down three times and was shot in three other dogfights but managed to bring his plane home despite his wounds.
Georges Madon 41 kills, survived the war Maurice Boyaur 35 kills, shot down and died
The Germans lost 60 % of their top aces, the Allies lost 40 % of theirs. Of course this database is only 15 names long, so we cannot project any correlation between policy and survival. Luck is obviously an immense factor in surviving combat. Consider that Nungessor was a famously reckless flier and hard drinking bon vivant, and should have been killed four or five times over, but survived, while McCudden was widely known for his caution and methodological approach to all aspects of air combat, and he was killed due to a mechanical failure in his aircraft.
Nice research. I haven't ever checked on the actual numbers. I will have to do so as well. Thanks.
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