I talked to a gentleman who had been a B-17 ball gunner at an airshow this past summer. He said he had 'acquired' a paratroopers reserve chute - the 24ft round canopy in the little pack. He said that he could clip one corner to his harness, and lay the pack along his leg with out it interfering with anything. His plan was to go out the hatch to the outside. He did say that it was the turret with external boxes, and that he didn't know if it would have worked with the earlier model.
As an aside, the only reason it came up was that he spotted a reserve chute on an AB reenactor's display table.
_________________ Lest Hero-worship raise it's head and cloud our vision, remember that World War II was fought and won by the same sort of twenty-something punks we wouldn't let our daughters date.
|