This is a request for help from a science teacher, who, cue for urine extraction, is OC of the Army Section of the school CCF.

I'm teaching about falling, with/without the extra wind resistance provided by a parachute, terminal velocity etc. I can remember vaguely the story of Sgt Alkemade who bailed out of the tail turret of a Lancaster minus parachute in March 1944 and survived. I can sort of recall seeing him on TV once many years ago, but I think he died quite some time ago.

Can anyone add anything that might help me? Is he still alive or when did he die? Any info/stories etc would be much appreciated by a load of 14 year olds - and me.

Adrian

A quick google search
http://www.greenharbor.com/fffolder/ffallers.html

Notable Free Fallers I.M. Chisov Lt. I.M. Chisov was a Russian airman whose Ilyushin IL-4 bomber was attacked by German fighters in January of 1942. Falling nearly 22,000 feet, he hit the edge of a snow-covered ravine and rolled to the bottom. He was badly hurt but survived.

Alan Magee Alan Magee, a gunner on a B-17 with the 303rd Bomb Group of the U.S. 8th Air Force, was on a mission to St. Nazaire, France in January of 1943, when his bomber was set aflame by enemy fire. He was thrown from the plane before he had a chance to put on his parachute. He fell 20,000 feet and crashed through the skylight of the St. Nazaire train station. His arm was badly injured, but he recovered from that and other injuries.
Nicholas Alkemade In March of 1944, Nicholas Alkemade was the tail gunner in a British Lancaster bomber on a night mission to Berlin when his plane was attacked by German fighters. When the captain ordered the crew to bail out, Alkemade looked back into the plane and discovered that his parachute was in flames. He chose to jump without a parachute rather than to stay in the burning plane. He fell 18,000 feet, landing in trees, underbrush, and drifted snow. He twisted his knee and had some cuts, but was otherwise alright.

ISTR an eastern European (Russian?) air hostess "falling to earth" after surviving a catastrophic failure in an airliner in the 50s or 60s... I'll see what I can dig up...
...... snow would seem to a good thing to have underneath, assuming no parachute above!

Edited to add:

Found her! Yugoslav not Russian and in 1972 - one Vesna Vulovic

... looks like she was in a bit of wreckage rather than "solo"....

Respect to the 33,000 feet freefall... had read that story before somewhere but didn't realise it was so high. Guess that terminal velocity means it doesn't make much difference above a certain height, anyone got any idea what that is?

Sgt Alkemade Was A Member Of 115 Squadron As I Recall.i Think He Died In 1987.
His Grandson Featured Recently On The Ch4 Prog On A Trainee Bomber Crew.

Rolling,

Good memory, was quite an entertaining program in the end. Didn't the grandson end up training as a gunner with the chick? They got to go clay pigeon shooting with Brendan! And iirc they got to plink away witha 50 cal aswell

Well, termial velocity for a body is about 120 mph i think, which is 53.65 m/s. From a standing start, you'd reach that in about 5.8 seconds, and cover about 165 meters, or about 540ft. So, if you're starting from 30,000ft, You've got a little under 29,500ft at the speed of a passenger train. That's about 165 seconds in total, so you've got a tad over 2 minutes to collect your thoughts... Cue the sperm whale from the Hitch-Hikers Guide to the Galaxy...

Techie, good call on the stats, but I make it 146m, not 165... suspect I've rounded or something?

Always surprising how little distance it is!

Quite possibly, maybe I have too, my physics is a little rusty...

Techie, I used 9.81ms-2 and v^2=u^2 +2aS to come up with mine, using your figue for terminal velocity. Surely the science teacher who started this thread can solve it, but suspect he's to busy having his car burnt out by the adoring li'l uns... Oh, no wait, CCF, means he's posh right Abeaumont, which science and which CCF (or a general area if you don't fancy it!)

... and IIRC the terminal velocity is higher at higher altitudes, due to less air resistance, although your formulae surely assume no air resistance.

Ok, but you get the general idea...

The highest parachute jump, if I remember correctly, was from roughly 102,000 feet by the Spams in about 1960. although there was a small stabilising drogue, there was talk that the jumper (Joe Kittinger?) was supersonic for a very short time, though this seems a bit contentious to me.

In fact, a quick Google (the curiosity got me) suggests this as a useful link. Hope it helps

http://hypertextbook.com/facts/2004/...atiHayek.shtml

Conan

He did appear on TV. In the early 80s, the BBC did a show called 'I've got a Secret' or something similar, and it was [God help me, I can remember this] hosted by Barry Took. The usual panel of B-list TV celebs had to guess the unusual secret of the guest. It was in the early evening 'jolly family quiz-type programme' slot the BBC had in pre-Eastenders days.

The Alkemade story had featured in one of the war comics, probably Victor, (of which the 9 year old Archimedes was an avid reader) a short time before the programme aired, so his appearance stood out in my mind; indeed, apart from Barry Took being the host, it's the only thing I can remember. Nick Alkemade gave a very deadpan account of his experience, to the general astonishment of the studio audience and the guest panel.

The BBC might have kept a copy, so perhaps....

teetering, true! No air resistance assumed there, but can't be bothered to go into degree level...

Gentlemen, many thanks for the info - very helpful! I'm a physics specialist rather than bugs or smelly chemicals... However anything that helps motivate and excite the interest of a group of 14 year olds is extremely welcome. I'm trying to make science real and relevant for them.

The v^ = u^ + 2as formula does not work for determining how far you have to fall to reach terminal velocity as it does not take account of the increasing effect of wind resistance. As such it only applies in the first couple of seconds or so of free fall. I think you have to fall about 500 m to get within about 98% of terminal velocity, from memory.

The class and I will be reading through this thread together in our next lesson on Friday. Many thanks for your help.

Adrian

I forgot to add - not posh, our CCF is one of those rare ones - it is in a state school. Location south east Kent from where you can see foreigners on a clear day.

IIRC The Luftwaffe investigated Alkamade's story, verified it and presented him with an official doc stating it to be true. ( I think they originally thought he had buried his chute as per SOP).

Isn't there also a problem with opening parachutes at higher alt. , something to do with permability of the fabric and air molecules? Of course I might be talking hoop, think I read about it on one of those excellent ejection seat sites.
Homework for the pupils;
Bloggs regularly works at 30,000ft. His aircraft does not have any parachutes, how long has he got to blame everyone else for his impending doom if he fell out ? (assuming ground level is 0ft) In fact when will he pass out and when will he bounce ?

I first read the story in a Telegraph colour magazine. I am fairly certain it was published 1 April 1968. A faily auspisious date! Point is it also included other "fatastic" stories, all with contempory photos of the principle chacters: Alkelmade; the WAAF who flew on a spitfire tail; the airman who evaded capture by stealing a bike "People stared a bit at the RAF blue as I rode past";and the tail gunner of a Halifax who spiraled safely to earth in the tail section when it broke off. I think I still have it, but at my parents house in a box so I won't be able to get hold of it straight away! As I recall the story was that Alkelmade was in danger of being shot as a spy because the Germans did not believe him until the burnt remains of his parachute were found in the wreckage of his aircraft. He attributed his survival to landing on young fir trees and soft snow.

As an aside I witnessed a "miraculous" survival at Shobdon in the early 80s. The Leader of the Irish Free Fall Team (Honest!) got into dificulty when his main, square, canopy failed to open. He deployed his reserve at what looked like 1000'. This just tangled around the main and he continued earthwards at a rather alarming rate. He fell silently no audible shout or scream. He fell behind the hangar and no one moved at first. Then a couple of parachute club members went to pick up the pieces. One of them ran back much faster than he had gone shouting "He's not dead!" Indeed he wasn't. Later on it was felt that he survived because the tangled canopies had caught a litle air just before he hit, I certainly think I saw that happen, and he hit a steep bank. So his decelleration was not as fast as if he had his flat concrete. He broke both legs and an arm and one or two other bones but did jump again.