Charles A. Lindbergh Recommends the Parachute He Took on His Epochal Flight From New York to Paris

He also gives a virtual treatise on parachute characteristics, showing how the world’s most famous pilot assessed them

After World War I, former Army Air Service pilots led an effort to develop an improved parachute. They came up with major developments, including a soft backpack to carry the chute, a ripcord, and a smaller pilot chute to draw the main chute out of the pack. In addition there was a top vent that allowed air to flow through, making it somewhat steerable. The new design worked flawlessly and the principals opened the Irving Air Chute Company in Buffalo.

When Charles A. Lindbergh flew solo across the Atlantic in 1927, he took reasonable precautions in the event something went wrong along the way. Perhaps the most important one was to carry the best possible parachute, and he took one along manufactured by the Irving company. That chute is presently at the Smithsonian Institution.

Cornelius N. Bliss, Jr., son of a member of President McKinley’s cabinet, was a merchant and philanthropist who participated in the presidential campaign of Theodore Roosevelt in 1904. In July 1916, he was named treasurer of the Republican National Committee. He also served as president of the Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor, a role he filled from 1913 to 1934. When the United States entered World War I in 1917, President Wilson named Bliss to his Red Cross Council and also his War Council, a group of advisers Wilson collected to guide his actions as commander in chief. After the war, Bliss returned to business and philanthropy on a large scale, operating as a trustee, board member, or president of several organizations, including the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Metropolitan Opera. When the Depression hit, he was one of six men named by New York City Mayor Jimmy Walker to operate a $15 million relief fund created in November 1931. Two of the other men were J.P. Morgan and Al Smith.

Typed letter signed, on his letterhead, New York, July 9, 1931, to Bliss, who had apparently written him expressing an interest in taking up flying, and asked which parachute would be best. Lindbergh responds by recommending the one he used on his epochal flight, and in the process gives a virtual treatise on parachutes and their opening characteristics. “The address of the Irving Air Chute Company is 372 Pearl Street, Buffalo, N.Y. The Irving Chute has had more service use than any other type manufactured, and its record of operation has been almost perfect in many thousands of jumps and tests. Consequently I would recommend this type as being the best for you to purchase. There are several experiments going on with new types of parachutes, which, it is claimed, reduce oscillation and possibly open a little faster. The question of oscillation however is not serious particularly in an emergency jump, and tests indicate that an Irving chute opens in a fall of approximately 70 feet. Its rate of descent is about 16 feet a minute, which an ordinary man – which is equivalent to jumping from an elevation of 7 or 8 feet. I do not believe however that it would be advisable for you to purchase one of these newer types until they have been more thoroughly tried out.”

A fascinating letter, showing how the world’s most famous pilot assessed that most essential of pilot possessions – parachutes. Vestiges of prior mounting on back.

The Irving concern supplied 13,000 chutes to the U.S. government during World War II. In fact, all the parachutes used in the D-Day invasion were Irving parachutes.

We obtained this letter from the Bliss descendants, and it has never before been offered for sale.