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I was once told that it was ok to parachute drop military spec Land Rovers but civilian Land Rovers had to be put on a pallet before parachute dropping or you were likely to break the chassis in the drop. This was told to me by a T.A. soldier but I have no idea if it's correct or not. I do know that there are differences in the specification between military and civilian Land Rovers.
Whats the cost of a fully kitted out Humvee with all the gear on-board just turn key......and go!
I am not sure the person laughing at the 3 failures if this had this been an operational drop that they had to leg it back say 40-50 klms back to base with full kit.....tax payer gets hit again.
Flying10uk,
Well your TA lad was way off the mark and clearly never attended a parachute riggers course run by Air Despatch.
All vehicles are palletized like this Pinzgauer and trailer and the course is one of the hardest physical courses you can attend in the Army run at RAF Brize Norton where accidents are not allowed to happen.
The U.S. do there courses differently to us, with completely diferent pallets and do have a high failure rate as shown by the video.
Gil, what my friend has is a rectangular wooden box that was said to have a Resistance owned Bren stored in it.
It was obvious to me that it was not a military spec box;(no handles on it and one small latch) but wanted to show him a photo of what it would have been supplied in because he wasn't sure.
I was not sure if the standard metal drop container would have been used on Resistance stuff.
Thanks for the photo's .
A lot of the heavy drop stuff was dropped at the old RAF Watchfield DZ near Shrivenham where I lived as a lad. I think that it was called Arnhem Camp and quite often you'd see heavy loads exit apparently quite successfully and then tip........ and tip a bit more and in it'd go, full tilt! Arnhem Camp is now part of the Shrivenham by-pass and the Air Dispatch part of RAF Abingdon is now part of a school playing fields and new houses
Those Pinzgauers Gil....... a bit of a story behind them! Land Rover were WELL behind schedule for two contracts supplying new LR's AND spare parts to the MoD due to the usual strikes and pi55-poor industrial relations at LR - then part of the notorious British Leyland JRT cowboy outfit. Things came to a head and the MoD procurement were being harangued by the MoD and gave LR an ultimatum that they were to re-start the previous delivery contract AND have the next signed and sealed supply contract started by the following week.
Like all the previous threats, (including Austin and Morris staff car contracts) LR ignored it. But not for long because the following Friday Daimler Steyr Putch (DSP) got the contract. And LR lost out!
Peter,
That made me chuckle..............and shows how fickle MOD Abbey Wood and Donnington are currently over contracts regardless of how big or small you are, as I know only to well recently.
The Pinzgauers are a big part of 16 Air Assault, becuase they don't break down. They also make strong money at disposal sites too.
7 PARA Royal Horse Artillery tow their guns with these wagons, and really odd to see the wheels towing in when they do, amazing little trucks.
For Flying10UK,
They drop them in on pallets too, both together............successfully:thup:
I have a funny feeling that the DSPuch trucks had already been trialed as replacements for the forward control V8 LR's so getting them was no hardship - except for the price! But in quantity the orders/prices were pretty similar. Are the DSP's still being used? Haven't seen one for ages. My old ASM was involved in this palava and also the ill fated RB trucks based on a French Renault(?).....
Gil, the T.A. chap, long since deceased, was only an acquaintance and while I remember what he said about parachuting Land Rovers I didn't know if what he was saying was right or wrong. I didn't listen to every word he said and take it as gospel and equally and I didn't turn round and tell him, to his face, that he didn't know what he was talking about. The chap must have told me this about 20 years ago and I put what he said to the back of my mind and this is the first time that I recall repeating it.
What about Lightweight, Air Transportable Land Rovers? Are they put on pallets before being air dropped or moved by helicopter?
We had lots of vehicles we dropped, there was a bulldozer without blade, basically a Caterpillar tractor that had more jumps than most men. The Chevrolet pickup trucks we had were dropped on pallet with lots of cardboard honeycomb but still were barely serviceable after many drops. They were almost dangerous to drive after...just a fact that even though they might be landing correctly and rigged correctly they still take such severe impact that their life is limited.
Weren't the lightweight series 3 LRs designed to be light for internal freight, i.e. By Hercules cargo bay,