pre war US Navy dive bomber

[Peter Laidler]

Look at that biplane torpedo bomber and consider the aircraft that were doing the job just 5 or so years later. The Dauntless and others........ That's progress when there's a war on!

[Sentryduty]

The caption leads the imagination on a terrifying way to mean one's demise:

...thrown from the aircraft during a high speed dive.

Perhaps the pilot survived with a 'chute? The caption doesn't really tell us what happened to that fellow.

[Sentryduty]

While reading online to see if I could learn about the fate of that pilot I did come across this image:

[Sentryduty]

After reading records of period aviation accidents, and researching online records for the NAS listed in the caption and the Aircraft serial, I cannot find any other reference to this incident. Perhaps the pilot survived incident and didn't get mentioned in the annuals of history. I did learn development of this aircraft was awful, air frames ripping apart in dives, wing detachments, a rough go. I can imagine the engineers to the test pilots; "Here's your parachute, point her at the ground and see if the wings stay on this version. Happy trails!"

[Flying10uk]

Was it normal practice for U.S. Army aircrew to always fly with parachutes in 1937 or were parachutes only issued when on deployment and on "special occasions"? I believe that I am correct in saying that with British aircraft of a similar period the parachute and reserve parachute often formed part of the seat for the pilot and co pilot and trying to fly without a chute would be a somewhat of an uncomfortable experience for those involved. For British aircraft of the period fitted with gun turrets, mainly bombers, the gunner didn't always wear a parachute while in the turret for the simple reason that there wasn't always enough room. In this instance, if it was necessary to exit the aircraft in a hurry, the person involve first had to remember to go back into the fuselage and put the chute on before jumping.

[browningautorifle]

All of that is the same as I understand it. The crew had chutes stored and pilots and co pilots, specially in the smaller aircraft used theirs as seat pads.

[rugersworld]

so much for wearing a seat belt or keep the canopy closed before the dive.

[Bruce_in_Oz]

My pilot friends have an interesting saying:

"It's only a "crash" if somebody dies. Anything else is a "heavy landing".