The Horse, as Comrade and Friend 



Show at Islington these Parachute Ponies 

 ought to have a Class to themselves. 



My taming of Horses and Ponies has most 

 certainly helped me to tame that most uncanny 

 beast the Parachute, and, when our Airmen's 

 lives are being saved in hundreds by the 

 " Guardian Angel " Parachute, to my ponies, 

 God bless them, must be given quite a big 

 share of the credit. 



Note. — The above was written in 1917, when the 

 Guardian Angel Parachutes, with their " positive 

 opening" and "tangle-proof rigging" which have 

 never once failed to function exactly as they were 

 designed to do, had been used most successfully, and 

 without any mishap whatever, for dropping " secret 

 service agents " at night from aeroplanes on to 

 positions previously selected behind the German lines. 

 The Guardian Angel Aeroplane Parachute was perfected 

 and standardised in June, 1916, after innumerable 

 trials and tests, private and official, from Government 

 Aeroplanes; since which date official records show 

 that more than 8,000 Flying Officers were killed in 

 machines falling in flames or broken in the air. It 

 has been estimated that of these dead air -fighters at 

 least half of them would have been saved alive if 

 they had been provided with these life-saving para- 

 chutes. It was the very efficiency of the parachute, 

 for its life-saving purpose, which led to its undoing 

 and condemned its use ; for the authorities at the 

 Hotel Cecil, who decided such matters, took the view 

 that if this appliance were to be placed at the service 

 of Flying Officers, for use and escape in case of 

 accident, machines might be needlessly crashed. 



242 



