Ninety-nine years ago this week: pilot Lt Harold R. Harris makes AFLCMC history

  • Published
  • By Air Force Life Cycle Management Center History Office
20 October 1922

Lt. Harold R. Harris poses by a Maurice Farman training biplane in his winter flying attire.McCook Field Engineering Division chief test pilot Lt Harold R. Harris became the first person to successfully bail out of a plane in an emergency using the freefall, ripcord-operated parachute.

Harris was engaged in a mock dogfight with Lt Muir Fairchild when the experimental balanced ailerons on his plane oscillated uncontrollably, leading to wing structural failure. He landed safely in a backyard grape arbor, while his Loening PW-2A monoplane crashed nearby, with no injuries on the ground. His Army Type A-1 parachute had been developed and standardized by McCook Field, the center for American parachute research since 1917. 

The first successful Army test jump with a free-fall parachute was made by Leslie Irvin at McCook Field on April 28, 1919. That chute was designed by Floyd Smith and Guy Ball, employed at McCook Field.  After 1,500 successful test jumps, the parachute was added as a requirement for Army Air Service pilots. 


Above: Lt. Harold R. Harris (U.S. Air Force photo)


 
Test jump at McCook Field

Parachute jump over McCook Field. (U.S. Air Force photo)