What is this plane #? ?

[howardwhite 4]

...and you thought climbing on the outside and sliding off the wing was something new...

HW

[darkwing 4]

Isn't that some Russian thing? I seem to recall seeing some video of that jump.

-- Jeff
My Skydiving History

[howardwhite 4]

Quote

Isn't that some Russian thing? I seem to recall seeing some video of that jump.

Could be. Here's another shot of the tail, looking back at a formation.

HW

[ryoder 1,384]

I'll take "Tupolev TB-3" for a hundred, Alex.

http://images.google.com/images?q=Tupolev TB-3&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wi

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tupolev_ANT-6

"There are only three things of value: younger women, faster airplanes, and bigger crocodiles" - Arthur Jones.

[pchapman 261]

Agreed, ANT-6 / TB-3. You beat me Ryoder!

It is interesting how the early Soviet paratroops used freefall gear. (It could have been Irvin gear or derived from it, as one Russian web source suggests the Soviets actually bought 1800 Irvin freefall rigs, when their own development efforts were still small.) For some jumps, photos show the paratroops would open the reserve canopy as well.

[howardwhite 4]

These are screen grabs from a 1937 newsreel, which has several other neat old Russian parachute scenes.

HW

[SkydiveJack 1]

Quote

Agreed, ANT-6 / TB-3. You beat me Ryoder!

It is interesting how the early Soviet paratroops used freefall gear. (It could have been Irvin gear or derived from it, as one Russian web source suggests the Soviets actually bought 1800 Irvin freefall rigs, when their own development efforts were still small.) For some jumps, photos show the paratroops would open the reserve canopy as well.

In the early 1980's I was at a DZ in France where new military jumpers were doing their initial jumps. Later in the day there was one load where every jumper deployed their reserve after the main opened. My understanding is that it was a required jump to pass the course. It was to serve as a confidence builder by having the new jumpers actually prove to themselves that they could open their reserve. Maybe the Russians were doing the same thing.

[skypuppy 1]

I don't remember the source, but I think there was even another thread on here that showed some graffiti in Moscow of parachutists descending under dual parachutes.

The idea was simply that having the two parachutes out slowed down the rate of descent. Maybe because of the equipment they carried....

Ok, found the source, John Weekes, Assault from the sky, 1978. Actually has another shot of a jump from TB-3 showing a second group climbing out from a hatch in the top of the rear fuselage and going over the port side while the other group slides down the starboard wing. The pilot is in an open cockpit and there is a man standing the extreme nose with a small flag thought to be controlling the two sticks. It says it is from between 1934 and 1940.

Also says using the two chutes was a common Russian habit until 1941, and shows the distinct square shape of the Russian chutes, designed to make it simpler to build.

If some old guy can do it then obviously it can't be very extreme. Otherwise he'd already be dead.
Bruce McConkey 'I thought we were gonna die, and I couldn't think of anyone

[howardwhite 4]

These are from another old newsreel, but I don't think it's a Russian.

HW

[Decodiver 0]

Skydivejack you are spot on here.

I did my jump course in the French military in 1986 and you were required to deploy the reserve once you were under the main. In those days the french military reserve did not have a spring-loaded extractor so you pulled the handle, opened the flaps then literally threw out the reserve canopy wiggled it around a little and it opened hey-presto. They introduced spring-loaded extractors in the early 90s but fortunately I only ever used my reserve once in 89 military drops.

Cheers,

Dave.

[riggerrob 558]

Translation: "extractor" is the French word for "pilot chute."

The French word makes way more sense to me.

[GreenLight 5]

It seems that this aircraft is quite versatile. Sort of a flying fortress, bomber and transport plane all in one. And there are people sticking out of it all over the thing. Who knows where the pilot is?

http://www.wwiivehicles.com/ussr/aircraft/bomber/tupolev-tb-3/tupolev-ant-6-01.jpg

Green Light
"Harry, why did you land all the way out there? Nobody else landed out there."
"Your statement answered your question."

[riggerrob 558]

Pilot is sitting behind the windshield, in line with the propellers.

[riggerrob 558]

Yes, that is freefall gear, only slightly modified from pilot emergency parachutes - by the addition of chest-mounted reserves.

Remember that Russian and French paratroopers started jumping with freefall rigs back in the 1930s.

Italian paratroopers started with a crude static-line system in the 1930s. Germans copied the crude Italian static-line system.

After German paratroopers' sucesses in battle paniced the British into starting training paratroopers, British paratroopers started with slightly modified PEPs, but soon invented the - infinitely more reliable - driect bag system.

Shortly there after, the United States Army adapted smoke-jumper static-line equipment for paratroopers. The US Army did not adopt direct-bag static-line until the 1950s.