Donate      Newsletter Signup

PLEASE SUPPORT THE ARMY AIR CORPS MUSEUM! [MORE]
Ads help support our web operation, if you would like to turn them OFF for this visit;

Parachutes

Parachutes were widely used by the AAF during WWII for obvious reasons. The chute systems were manufactured for the war effort by several companies, including Automotive Fibers, American Lady Corset Co., Fashion Frocks, Reliance, Irvin, and Swittlik, and others.

Bomber crews generally used the chest harness type chute system, such as the A-3 and A-4. Fighter pilots generally used "seat pack" types, like the AN-6510.

When crews jumped from their planes it was termed 'hitting the silk'. For those parachuting in combat, they became members of the Caterpillar Club.

 Equipment

VOLUNTEERING

Are you an AAC, AAF or USAF Veteran, family member, historian or WW2 enthusiast? We Need YOU! Contact us today to see how you can help the Army Air Corps Library and Museum, a Texas Not-For-Profit Corporation. We need your help! We are looking for volunteers that can help us with the following tasks. Typing and Transcriptionists: One of our big projects is extracting data from the thousands of documents we have and putting this data into a database where we can display the information on a website such as this one. We also need assistance with retyping unit history documents.

Contact About Volunteering