Viewing page 8 of 29

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

30 

1913
[[image]]

[[image]]

STORY OF THE THRILLING LEAP

LOS ANGELES, June 22, 1913 - For the first time in the history of aviation a woman yesterday made a descent from a rapidly moving aeroplane to the earth in perfect safety.

Miss Tiny Broadwick made this experiment to test the efficiency and practical use of a new aerial "lifeboat" which has just been perfected by Glenn Martin and which he believes marks an important step in the safety of aviation and the military use of the aeroplane.

At a height of more than 1000 feet Miss Broadwick shot out from the machine and landed as lightly as a bird in a grainfield close to the Griffith Park aviation field.

Both Martin and Miss Broadwick declared after the remarkable experiment, that a new step had been taken toward making aeroplane navigation much safer than it has been before.

The "safety-pack," as Martin calls his invention, weighs but eleven pounds and may easily be carried upon the back of an aviator or passenger.

PARACHUTE OPENED QUICKLY

In character it is simply a parachute of very thin, strong silk fastened to a mesh of Italian hemp. It is so folded into a canvas case that when the passenger drops it immediately unfolds.

Miss Broadwick, who has made many parachute drops from a balloon said that it opened much more quickly and easily than other devices which she had tried.

The demonstration was witnessed by only half a dozen spectators. Miss Broadwick was dressed for the occasion in a ballet costume of red silk. The parachute is of red, white, and blue silk and the spectacle was beautiful as well as thrilling.

To plunge toward the earth from a biplane moving at thirty miles an hour, an experiment never before tried, was a daring feat, and the little group watching from below waited with tense expectation.

"Tiny" Broadwick is officially recognized as being the first woman to make a parachute jump from an airplane. She had previously jumped many times from balloons with parachutes designed and made by her father, Charles Broadwick.