Comments on: Floating Down on Bed Sheets

By: Brandon

Brandon — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 17:49:15 +0000

They need to fly the planes lower to the ground other wise were going to be floating up there forever.

By: rich

rich — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 02:19:00 +0000

There is no such thing as a PERFECTLY good
airplane-why do you think parachutes were
invented? Also ejection seats-which have
parachutes.…

By: Dave K.

Dave K. — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 19:45:53 +0000

Slows the decent of a soldier?
I thought we wanted decent soldiers?

By: Helmetfoot

Helmetfoot — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 02:21:41 +0000

I’m not a jumper, just a Gyrene so I don’t know from parachutes. It seems to me that the slower you descend the more likely you can be hit by some guy already on the ground and waiting for you. That bedsheet looks like a big target to me.
You jumpers are to be admired for courage but how about a little more common sense about that descent speed.

By: Helmetfoot

Helmetfoot — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 02:19:33 +0000

I’m not a jumper, just a Gyrene so I don’t know from parachutes. It seems to me that the slower you descend the more likely you can be hit from some guy already on the ground and waiting for you. That bedsheet looks like a big target to me.
You jumpers are to be admired but what about that descent speed.

By: Helmetfoot

Helmetfoot — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 02:18:23 +0000

By: akhilleus514

akhilleus514 — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 20:19:42 +0000

When was the last time the US military dropped airborne troops into a contested, hot DZ fully expecting to have some of it’s personnel not make it to the ground? Operation Market Garden? This is not how we do business. This is what helicopters are for, the sticky stuff. Any airborne commander that would allow a mass daylight jump into fire would and should be relieved for cause.

By: Mark

Mark — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 13:06:18 +0000

I had a chance to watch this hump and I was impressed. I am 76″, 240 lbs, add the body armor and a 80lbs pack and I was always the last one out and first one down. As for getting shot at while coming down slower it is the same theory as before, “Big sky, little bullet.“
Oh by the way, I have 12 years on jump status and have never jumped from a “Perfectly good airplane.”

By: jsallison

jsallison — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 01:10:10 +0000

Actually the commander’s hatch on an M1 is quite snug. Pretty much just big enough to allow you to squeeze your head and shoulders up into it to use the umbrella position. The size of the loader’s hatch was determined by the size of the 120mm M256’s breechring which has to be moved through it to be replaced without removing the turret. The driver’s hatch is sized to allow various sizable electronic components to be moved through it as well.

By: Charles

Charles — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 23:03:34 +0000

I suppose it’s back that line in Apocalypse Now where the US troops need the PX and three-square and the VC fight with “a bowl of rice and a piece of fish”.
Someone needs to do a statistical test where they airdrop a plane-load of dummies with the old chutes, and then ones with the new chutes, and then shoot at them and compare how many are riddled with holes. Of course, the test is very limited in what it can say, but it still says something about whether or not reduced descent speed makes it that much easier to kill/incapacitate airborne troops.
If this thing is steerable, could troops be conceivably dropped from lower altitudes and farther away, and then “steered” towards the DZ? or perhaps aid in dispersion instead of dropping in large drop zones?