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Broadwick - 15

Q: But I mean after you were parachuting, did he fly around you?

Broadwick: After my parachute was opened, he'd fly around, and we'd wave back and forth at each other.

Q: What was the public's reaction to this first drop? Did they feel something new had happened?

Broadwick: Oh yes, there was a great to-do over it, and quite a fuss made over me, and I couldn't see why they'd make a fuss because it wasn't anything that I wasn't used to doing. It was just a little bit easier for me than dropping from the balloon. There was a lot of excitement, a lot of comment on it.

Q: Mr. Broadwick's parachute, the lifesaving device -- did this become popular? Did people try to buy this?

Broadwick: They became popular, but they had to make them --instead of a coat, for the fliers, they made them into a seat-pack. You probably know more about that than I could tell you. They had all kinds of experiments with the parachutes, where they'd be more comfortable for the flier. 

Q: After this first jump, you and Mr. Martin continued to go around the country doing the same thing?

Broadwick: Yes, we barnstormed all over the country. The Chicago Centennial Exposition -- that's when we drew the biggest money, I think, and had the biggest crowd. We worked off of the water, with me hanging on the outside of the plane, and Mr. Martin would always circle and see that the boat -- they had to come and pick me up in a boat each day--he would circle around till he saw that the boat was close to. Then he would fly away and go to the regular hangar, the landing base, and they'd always bring me up and introduce me to the people in the stands, because I worked so far away