Test Dummies Used by the U.S. Air Force
Since the beginning of manned flight, designers have sought a substitute for the human body to test hazardous new equipment. Early devices used by the predecessors of the U.S. Air Force were simply constructed parachute drop test dummies with little similarity to the human form. Following World War II, aircraft emergency escape systems became increasingly sophisticated and engineers required a dummy with more humanlike characteristics.
Parachute Drop Dummies
During World War I research and development of the first U.S. military parachute was underway at McCook Field, Ohio. To test the parachute, engineers experimented with several types of dummies, settling on a model constructed of three-inch hemp rope and sandbags with the approximate proportions of a medium-sized man.³⁰ The new invention was soon known by the nickname “Dummy Joe.” Dummy Joe is said to have made more than five thousand “jumps” between 1918 and 1924.³¹
By 1924, parachutes were required on military aircraft with their serviceability tested by dummies dropped from aircraft.³² For this routine testing, several types of dummies were used. The most common type is shown in figures 17 and 18. Parachutes were individually drop-tested from aircraft until the early stages of World War II, when, due both to increased reliability and large numbers of parachutes in service, this routine practice was discontinued. Nonetheless, test dummies were still used frequently by the Parachute Branch of Air Materiel Command (AMC) at Wright Field, Ohio, to test new parachute designs.
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Fig. 16. “‘Dummy Joe,’ the hero of five thousand jumps” is shown here with engineers J.J. Higgins (left) and Guy Ball at McCook Field, Ohio in 1920. (U.S. Air Force photo)
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