Parachutists' Sensations

Last week two of the testiest physiologists in the U.S. talked back to the Army's Captain Harry Armstrong, long considered No. 1 U.S. authority on aviation medicine. At the University of Chicago's 50th anniversary celebration, famed Professors Anton Julius ("Ajax") Carlson and Andrew Conway Ivy marched in with a parachute jumper. In a learned paper on "The Physiology of a Free Flight Through the Air" they contradicted some of the scientific observations which Dr. Armstrong made when he jumped from a plane at 2,200 feet, six years ago.

Dr. Armstrong (who made the first jump for science) had said: "[I felt as though I were] lowered slowly into a great bed of softest down." When his eyes were closed, he added, "all sense of motion was lost. . . . The sensation was that of being suspended at rest in mid-air." He had thought "the rush of air past the ears would produce considerable sound, yet none was noted."

Young Arthur Starnes, 190-lb. colleague of the physiologists, had a different story to tell last week. An experienced jumper, he leaped five times from altitudes up to 16,500 feet, laden with his weight in equipment. His baggage: a device to measure altitude and his breathing rate; a microphone; a motion-picture camera to record turns of his body; a stop watch; a special oxygen mask and helmet.

Parachuter Starnes, said the professors, fell into no featherbed. He heard a terrific rush of wind past his ears; when he tried to talk he felt as though he were shouting into a high gale. He knew "he was falling and falling rapidly," for his body spun through the air "[like] a leaf."

Otherwise Mr. Starnes agreed with Captain Armstrong. Except for a momentary blackout when he pulled the ripcord, his mind was sharper and quicker than when his feet were on the ground. Like Dr. Armstrong, he had no "gone" feeling, which one gets when an elevator begins to fall too rapidly. His heartbeat and blood pressure were normal at all times.

From Mr. Starnes's experiences, the scientists last week drew a practical conclusion: they suggested use of a small, accessory anti-spin parachute, to keep jumpers in a semierect position and minimize the distress of swirling.

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