indyz 1 #1 November 18, 2008 Google just released a searchable archive of millions of old Life photos, most of which were never published. There are a good amount of old sport and military jumping photos out there. High-altitude jumps, shoe-mounted photos of ram-airs from 1968, crazy airshow tricks and a lot more. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
howardwhite 5 #2 November 18, 2008 Thanks for finding those; they're a treasure. I've just started looking through them, but I'm already puzzled by some of the pix in the "Russian parachute in Woodbury, CT" sequence. Some are indeed from Woodbury (the site of the first US collegiate meet in 1957) but others look rather like Queen Elizabeth and definitely not taken in Woodbury, CT. There are also several pictures of Lew Sanborn, Jacques Istel and Nate Pond in the earliest years of the Orange Sport Parachute Center and some of Nick Piantanida, who died in a high-altitude balloon jump attempt. And Dave Jansen, shown in several shots of a water jump from a seaplane, signed off my jumps 97-99 in 1966.HW Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
howardwhite 5 #3 November 19, 2008 I've had a chance to look through these a little more, and some may be interesting. What's on line now is only some 20 percent of the Life collection, and I know there are a lot more Life pictures of skydiving not yet on Google Images. LewNate is (l-r) Lew Sanborn (D-1), Jacques-André Istel (D-2), Nate Pond (D-69), and George Flynn (pilot). 84C is that same Cessna and maybe the same three jumpers. It is not the same 84C that flew jumpers at Orange through the 60s and 70s. in_plane is a first jump student in that plane. These pictures were taken at the Orange Sport Parachuting Center in July, 1959, just a couple of months after the center opened. At least some of them were used in a Life article about the new sport of parachuting. The photographer was George Silk, a very famous long-time Life photographer who among other things took the first pictures of Nagasaki after the atomic bomb landed there. JAI_Russian is Jacques Istel jumping a Russian canopy at Goodhill Farm in Woodbury, CT. It is undated, but probably taken in September, 1956, just after Istel returned from the World Meet in Russia. The photographer was Peter Stackpole, another very famous Life photographer. Goodhill Farm is the long-time home of the Pond family, and was the site of the first collegiate nationals in 1957. The three foil pictures were taken at Ft. Bragg in 1968 as part of a life story about foil canopies. Fun stuff for a history wonk. HW Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
pchapman 262 #4 November 20, 2008 QuoteThere are a good amount of old sport and military jumping photos out there. High-altitude jumps, shoe-mounted photos of ram-airs from 1968, crazy airshow tricks and a lot more. For that "crazy airshow trick" - Anyone have an idea who or where it was? It shows someone doing a drag off from the top wing of a Jenny biplane, at what appears to be a racetrack, with the caption just saying that it was in Canada in 1972. The sleeveless canopy is just opening, but the reinforcing bands in it seem to crisscross every which way, not like the usual gore style parachute. More like a Hoffman Triangle or ??? Even in '72 a jump and aircraft like that would be extremely rare! [Edit: added hours later:] It seems the photo was mislabelled. There are a bunch more in the sequence, but with different tags. Between the other photos and searching of car race websites, those distinctive stands were the ones at the California Motor Speedway, at Ontario, California. It was out in agricultural land then, but is all covered by malls and the like now. Looks like the jumper went without a reserve, as far as I can see in the photos. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
AggieDave 6 #5 November 20, 2008 Howard, On the "foil bragg" picture, from that angle it almost looks like a modern canopy since you can't see a whole lot of the detail of the design (besides having 8-cells and being really square) and you can't tell how absolutely ridiculously long (by modern standards) the lines are.--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline." Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
howardwhite 5 #6 November 20, 2008 QuoteIt seems the photo was mislabelled. Yup. I think a fair number of the labels are wrong, based on what I've been through so far. But it's still a treasure, not just for the skydiving pictures; Life had week in, week out, some of the best photojournalism ever seen. HW Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
howardwhite 5 #7 November 20, 2008 Yeah, here are a couple more of a foil, giving a better look at line length. HW Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bozo 0 #8 November 20, 2008 QuoteYeah, here are a couple more of a foil, giving a better look at line length. HW I sent both of those to CSM Bob McDermott , hes a good friend of mine. bozo Pain is fleeting. Glory lasts forever. Chicks dig scars. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
howardwhite 5 #9 November 20, 2008 Actually, the second one was sent to me by Bob McDermott. HW Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jumpwally 0 #10 November 20, 2008 Anybody out there know the line length,,better yet anyone out able to give us a briefing on how they flew,flared and landed,,that would be an interesting read...wowsmile, be nice, enjoy life FB # - 1083 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jonstark 8 #11 November 20, 2008 QuoteAnybody out there know the line length,,better yet anyone out able to give us a briefing on how they flew,flared and landed,,that would be an interesting read...wow I don't know how they flared but I do remember a lot of guys wearing plaster wrist casts back then. jon Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
