The Cellar Image of the Day

Naw, no bugs.
The Caterpiller Club is only open to people who have had their lives saved by a parachute, after they were forced to jump from a disabled plane.

The pins, membership cards and certificates, are awarded by the companies that make the chutes, primarily Irvin and Switlik.

Switlik says;

Quote:

The Caterpillar Club was originated at Dayton, Ohio between October 20, 1922 and November 11, 1922 by Messrs Hutton, Verne Timmerman, J. Mumma and Milton H. St. Clair. This world-wide club is for aviators, military and commercial, who have saved their lives with a parachute in an emergency.

It all started with a young army test pilot named Harold Harris. On October 20, 1922 he was flying a Loening W-2A monoplane fighter in a mock dogfight with a friend. His plane had been equipped the day before with experimental aerodynamically balanced airlerons. After taking off from the test center at McCook field, Dayton near where the Wright brothers tested their plane, his plane suddenly rocked violently and Harris found he could not control it. He had to bail out.

Two reporters from the Dayton Herald, discussing the event, suggested that since there would be more jumps with the chute, a club should be formed to embrace these intrepid airmen. They considered several names for the organization and selected the Caterpillar Club. The reasoning was simple - the parachute main sail and shroud lines were woven from the finest silk. The lowly caterpillar worm spins a cocoon and crawls out and flies away from certain death.

Quote:

The Irvin Air Chute Co. started the Caterpillar Club in 1922 and the practice of awarding the tiny gold Caterpillar Pin to anyone who saved his life by parachuting from a disabled or flaming aircraft. Each recipient of the Caterpillar Pin is living testimony to the life saving ability of the Irvin Type Air Chute. The Caterpillar is symbolic of the silk worm, which lets itself descend gently to earth from heights by spinning a silky thread to hang from. Parachutes in the early days were made from pure silk.

In 1919 Leslie Irvin, a 24-year-old stunt man from California, demonstrated the first "free drop" parachute. He had made the chute himself on a borrowed sewing machine. Flying safety experts were so impressed that the American Air Force and British R.A.F. promptly adopted the parachute as standard equipment. Later the same year, Irvin established his first factory for the mass production of parachutes in Buffalo, New York. In 1926 the first European factory was established in Letchworth, England.

So what? Just some pieces of paper. I "hang out" in front of junior-high schools every afternoon, waiting for the little bus to pick me up, and I see paper all the time. Everywhere I go, from the office of my court-ordered psychiatrist to the floor of my cage in Grannie's basement, I see paper in some form.
You 'people' should go 'out' into the real 'world'.

newtimer, I guess your Grannie, and the courts, are your parachute.

btw, well played.

I used to jump a lot. Civilian club jump planes are not "perfectly good airplanes". They are stripped down to the bare minimum weight then they are loaded with bodies to the point where they have to use ground effect to take off. They climb hard, land, and do it again all day. I was always nervous during the climb, and didn't relax until I was out of the damned things.

Tick

So it becomes a perfectly good airplane once you and your friends have jumped out of it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tick

Actually, it becomes a pretty good airplane at about 3000 feet. Above that if something goes very wrong, the jumpers can all hop and pop. That leaves the pilot to fend for himself.

"Perfectly good" only happens in the past tense, when everyone is back on the ground safe. I'm not putting down skydiving. It's a heck of a kick.

Tick

I shall now boast. Not only is my last name "Irvin", I was born on Oct. 13, 1943, the day after that second Caterpillar Club card was issued. A few years ago, talking with a WWII vet who had jumped out of a disabled plane, I asked him if he was a member of that club. He called happily to another vet, "Hey, George! She knows what the Caterpillar Club is!" Thanks for making more people aware of it.

Cool, tombstone, are you related to Leslie or just a coincidence?

Hey, wait a minute... if you knew about this shit, why didn't YOU tell us about it, you knowledge hoarder you.

oooh, is this a new cellar romance starting to bud? Bruce you mischievous devil you.

Family legend has it that a second cousin was a member of the caterpillar club - he walked away from a crash in Narabeen, Sydney in 1953, but, sadly, wasn't so lucky the next year in Wales .

I welcome, with open threads, all members to share their stories. Especially the ones that appear to be reticent, maybe shy... hesitant to expose themselves to you smart-alecky whippersnappers.