I discovered this on a visit to the Aviation Hall of Fame in Teterboro, where one of the paratroopers is suspended from the ceiling
below a parachute. He’s not human. He’s a rubber decoy.
Developed by the Switlik Parachute Company, 500 para-dummies
were attached to parachutes and dropped from airplanes behind enemy lines,
intended to distract German troops from the actual dropzones where live
paratroopers were landing. If the torrent of descending bogus parachutists
wasn’t enough to cause confusion, they were accompanied by special forces
personnel who deployed sound recordings of battle noises. The decoys also
exploded with the sound of gunfire when they made contact with the ground.
If you’ve seen The Longest Day, you might remember the
highly lifelike (yet smaller) detail of the decoys said to have been used by
the Allies. In reality, such detail likely was unnecessary and probably too
costly, given the expendability of the dummies. As the war progressed, though,
improvements made the decoys’ earthbound fall more convincing to observers from
the ground.
Museums in Europe hold a variety of WWII era dummies,
including the American-made, British-deployed Ruperts (sack cloth filled with
sand or straw), the American prototype Oscar (non-magnetic metal and,
ironically, developed with the help of Douglas Fairbanks Jr.) and the PD Pack
(rubber) developed by the Navy at Lakehurst .
Though the Switlik dummies appear to have been Ruperts, the Aviation Hall of
Fame displays what looks to be a PD Pack.
Switlik is still in business, and has been manufacturing in Trenton for over 90
years. While the company stopped producing parachutes after the Vietnam War, the
family-owned business continues to make life preservation products for the
aviation and marine markets, including life rafts, life vests, and anti-g and
anti-exposure suits.
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