C019

Some day you will read a poem about a farmer boy who made himself a flying machine and jumped from the barn loft, flapping his wings. He did not fly, but he scared a calf nearly to death.



He jumped with a flying machine. In wartime, paratroopers leap from airplanes. Most of them could not do this safely if they were not very carefully trained. During training they are dropped from a tower, first strapped to a suspended chair, then in a harness, and then with an open parachute, until they become accustomed to falling. Finally they are taken up in an airplane, from which they jump, pulling the rip cord which opens the parachute. Those who keep their heads, pulling the rip cord at the right time, usually have no trouble more serious than an occasional bruise or sprain.