Coming Down, by a Professional
Parachutist-AL HARRIS
Five years ago Al Harris gave up his life of a commercial pilot in America to take up parachuting. At a display in New York he made his first drop. He was pretty nervous-and that wasn't helped by the expressions of pity from the crowd. As the 'plane climbed the sky he thought he was leaving the world for good. At a height of 2,000 feet he climbed on to the wing of the 'plane ... and jumped. In his talk this evening he will describe what happened.
He has made some hundreds of 'jumps ' since then, and had many thrilling adventures in the course of them. It's an exciting game parachuting with a gale blowing.
And yet a parachute may mean safety. At the last moment Amy Johnson decided to take one on her record flight to Australia. One evening on the Western Front during the war an enemy 'plane skimmed over a line of observation balloons, from end to end, and set fire to them one after the other. Not a single British life was lost, thanks to parachutes.