Author Archive

Here are the answers to our 100 year anniversary crossword puzzle.

Enjoy a fun and challenging crossword puzzle centered around our 100 year anniversary and business.

Answers will be posted in a week.

Hint: our website will have some answers!

On April 19, 1919, Leslie Leroy Irvin made the world’s first premeditated freefall parachute descent using a rip cord, rather than using a canister or tether line attached to the aircraft to pull open the parachute. Working with the U.S. Army’s Air Service parachute research team, Irvin made the historic jump from a plane over McCook field near Dayton, Ohio. During the jump, Irvin broke his ankle but was inspired to start his own parachute business.

Later that year, in June of 1919, he opened the Irvin Air Chute Company in Buffalo, NY. What became known as the Irvin parachute gained rapid acceptance, and by the early 1930’s was in service with some 40 air forces around the world. With the start of World War II, Irvin became a major manufacturer of parachutes. During that war, Irvin parachutes saved over 10,000 lives. The Irvin name had set the standard for innovation, reliability, and quality.

As a humanitarian, Irvin was obsessed with saving lives with his equipment. He founded the Caterpillar Club in 1922 to recognize individuals that had their lives saved by a parachute. Today, the Caterpillar Club is one of the most famous flying clubs in the world and has awarded thousands of men and women with a gold caterpillar pin symbolizing the silk from which early parachutes were made. Some of its famous members include names such as Charles Lindbergh, General James Doolittle and former astronaut John Glenn. Since its creation, Leslie Irvin has given a gold caterpillar pin to each member, a tradition still observed by Airborne Systems today.

The Caterpillar Club was founded after Lieutenant Harold R. Harris bailed out of a disabled aircraft. Realizing that the parachute industry was rapidly developing, it was suggested that a club should be formed honoring those whose lives had been saved a parachute. The Irvin Air Chute Company created the club and Harris became its first member. The number of members rapidly increased. By the end of World War II, the club had grown to over 34,000 members and is now estimated to be well over 100,000 members.

One of the most famous members of the club is General Jimmy Doolittle, a U.S. pilot who has made two emergency landings with Irvin chutes. Upon surviving his second bail out in 1931, he sent a well-known telegram to Leslie Irvin reading, “Plane failed: chute worked”.

Other well-known members include Charles Lindbergh, both a stunt and airmail pilot, aviation pioneer Augustus Post, Larry “Scrappy” Blumer, an American Ace pilot, former astronaut John Glenn, and the former president of the United States, George H. W. Bush, who bailed out of his plane during World War II.

Until his death in 1966, Leslie Irvin was the Honorary Secretary of the club, but despite the fact that he has made over 300 parachute jumps, Irvin was never forced to bail out and was never eligible for a membership himself.

As Airborne Systems approaches our 100^th anniversary as a company in 2019, we look back on all the great achievements of our founder, Leslie Irvin. We are honored to carry on the Caterpillar Club in his name.

This past weekend, on November 3, 2018, Leslie Irvin was inducted into the International Skydiving Hall of Fame. Elizabeth Johnson, Director of Sales and Marketing at Airborne Systems, and Robert Sinclair, Chief Engineer of Space and Recovery at Airborne Systems, attended the banquet and proudly accepted Leslie Irvin’s award. The event was filled with skydiving icons from all around the world.

Pictured to the right: (from left) Daryl Henry (represented by friend Buzz Bennett), Henny Wiggers, Coy O. McDonald Jr., Ray Cottingham, Jay Stokes, Roger Ponce de Leon, Leslie Irvin (represented by Rob Sinclair and Elizabeth Johnson of Airborne Systems), Dom Jalbert (represented by his grandson Craig Oldre), Tony Uragallo, and Suzie Hunter-Joerns.

(Photo by Andrey Veselov)

The Skydiving Hall of Fame is awarded to people who “…through leadership, innovation and/or accomplishments have defined, promoted, inspired and advanced skydiving at the highest and sustained levels such that they have made it possible for generations of skydivers to enjoy the sport.” (Skydivingmuseum.org/hall-of-fame). Leslie Irvin is credited with making the first premeditated free-fall descent using a ripcord in 1919.  With an intense interest in parachute innovation and jump safety, he formed his own parachute company also in 1919, which grew to six factories by 1939 serving over 45 countries, and eventually led to today’s Airborne Systems.  During the WWII era when canopies were made of silk from Japan, he quickly got to work and delivered the first canopies made entirely from nylon, the material of choice to this day for skydivers.  His many patents for innovative design of canopies and parachuting equipment pioneered the industry and produced tremendous advancements to the parachute industry.

We are so honored that Leslie Irvin received this well-deserved award. Every day, we strive to carry on his legacy in the parachute industry with new technology, innovations, and ideas. As we come up on the 100th anniversary of Irvin’s first intentional freefall jump and incorporation of the Irvin Air Chute company, we are proud of the many contributions to the industry through his incredible legacy.

For our October 19th release to honor our 100 year anniversary coming up in June of 2019, we have designed a calendar full of historical facts about our story over the last 100 years!

January: 1928: Leslie Irvin opens a factory dedicated solely to the production of Irving parachutes in Buffalo, NY.

February: 1963: Landing brake-parachute is developed by Irvin for SR-71.

March: 1964: Irvin produces the XB-70A Landing Deceleration System.

April: 1986: Irvin Industries develops an air droppable light weight survival kit (SKAD), containing two six-man inflatable rafts and emergency survival equipment.

May: 1996: Irvin designs and tests a cluster of 3 Ringsail parachutes to recover the Boeing EELV concept’s 20,000 lb propulsion module.

June: 1999: F-22 development aircraft successfully conducts flight tests with Irvin’s self-monitoring, pilot-actuated Spin/Stall Parachute Recovery System.

July: 2002: Para-Flite designs and produces the Advanced Tactical Parachute Systems, known as the T-11.

August: 2005: Para-Flite develops the parachute systems for first stage recovery of Falcon I commercial launch vehicle.

September: 2006: Airborne Systems competed and won the design competition for the MC-6 as the replacement for the MC-1 for the U.S. Army.

October: 2015: Blue Origin has a successful first flight.

November: 2017: The K-9 dog harness is developed.

December: 2018: Airborne Systems is awarded the contract for the Enhanced Multi-Mission Parachute System (E-MMPS) for the United States Marine Corps.

If you are interested in a 2019 calendar, contact Maria Holman at [email protected]!

To celebrate our 100th anniversary this month, we are releasing our very special 100th anniversary coin!

One side of the coin features the first freefall parachute, known as the “Model A” parachute. The opposite side features our 100 year logo. In beautiful antique silver accented by our signature Airborne blue.