The Inflatable Rescue Plane that Could Actually Fly

Описание: One of the most daunting and stressful situations a combat pilot can find himself in is being shot down inside enemy territory. Once his plane has been disabled, the pilot has just a few precious moments to attempt to escape from his aircraft.

Leaving the cockpit in and of itself is a complex and risky affair, but once outside the disabled plane, the pilot finds himself in a hazardous situation that could involve injuries, search and rescue operations, or even being captured.

To answer the complexity of these issues, the Goodyear corporation came up with a ludicrous yet brilliant solution: inflatable planes.

The idea was that a downed pilot would be able to deploy an inflatable aircraft and fly himself back to safety without endangering the lives of others.

Rescuing a pilot behind enemy lines was so risky and costly that the US military decided to conduct a thorough development program to test and eventually deploy inflatable aircraft.

The results after years of testing would shock even the US Air Force Commanders in charge of the project…


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