Show R radio adio for parachute firefighters fire fighters developed by U S forest service washington A new lightweight radio for the parachuting fire fighters being used on the national forests for the first time this year has recently been announced by the forest service U S department of agriculture tests made by the forest service on the chelan national forest in in washington last fall with a crew of parachute jumpers indicated the practicability of dropping fire fighters from airplanes to put out small fires in some of the inaccessible back country areas of the national forests the new radiophone has been developed so that the smoke jumper can keep in touch with the plane pilot and with his headquarters h when he reaches the ground the smoke jumpers use a specially designed parachute which has a rate of descent of about 12 feet per second and permits a certain amount of steering toward the landing spot A special chute harness and protective suit and headgear were also developed to so protect the jumpers that they can land almost anywhere at any elevation in tall trees or open spaces or on rough ridges jumpers who went down into stands of young lodgepole pine last fall fa christened them featherbed landings because the pines will vall catch a parachute young readily and absorb most of the shock on their bending swaying tops in order to facilitate descent from tall trees the jumpers carry arry c a coil of light strong rope A small number of complete units of equipment have already been purchased the forest service reports and these will be used to train smoke jumpers in actual work on forest fires this summer the work is just getting under way in national forests in the northern and northern cascades of montana and washington planes which deliver the parachuting firefighters fire fighters scout the fire on their first trip over the spot and drop a small test chute with a 10 pound sand bag to determine wind drift they then circle back and make a second approach at which time the parachutist descends and by using the steering flaps on his parachute generally manages to reach the ground close to the selected landing spot on a third approach the pilot drops the firefight fire fight ing kit which is carried down by a burlap parachute with a yellow streamer attached to prevent its being lost a method used by the forest service for some years to deliver tons of equipment to back country firefighters fire fighters the burlap chute pack contains necessary tools rations first aid kit and the like but the parachutist will carry with him the new light lightweight weight radio so that he can contact the pilot or his headquarters immediately if necessary or can make reports later the small type radiophone developed by the forest service weighs only six pounds with dry batteries and all accas accessories bories and is not quite as large as a loaf of sandwich bread it measures 2 by 4 by 12 inches and operates on ultra high frequencies between and kilo cycles having a two way communication range covering an optical distance which with sufficient elevation may be as much as a hundred miles |