Arizona Daily Star from Tucson, Arizona • Page 10

-SECTION A THE ARIZONA DAILY STAR SUNDAY, AUGUST 25, 1963 Pilot Bares Tale Of Fantastic Parachute Jump D-M's Col. Nole Tells Of Accident In 1957 Nearly six years ago a AFB colonel, jumped from his 10 miles above the rolling plains The story, which has just tastic one that it may live Force. The pilot, Col. Jack Nole, 43, deputy commander for maintenance of the 4080th Strategic (U2) Wing at D-M, made medical history and caused a revision in Air Force thinking on 1, high-speed, highaltitude bailouts. His jump, from 53,000 feet, is the world's record parachute jump.

Others have jumped from higher altitudes but they have made free falls before opening their chutes at more hospitable altitudes. The Sept. 25, 1957, accident brought about an ejection seat for U2s, a better-designed parachute and allied equipment, and triggered a new round of high-altitude bailout tests. But all this was unknown to Nole, of course, when 1 he took off from Laughlin AFB, Del Rio, on what he thought was to be a routine test flight of a U2. A veteran of fighting in the European and Pacific TheaWorld War II, Nole been assigned to the United States' first U2 squadron at Laughlin, then a hushhush project that didn't come to the public's notice until U2 pilot, now a Davis-Monthan disintegrating plane more than of Southwest Texas.

been revealed, is such a fanforever in the annals of the Air By BOB THOMAS pilot could never fly at the extreme altitudes of which the plane is capable. At 53,000 feet the air is so thin it is unbreathable, and the lack of ground-level pressures cause an unprotected man's blood to "boil" and his organs, such as his heart and lungs, to explode. When the cockpit pressure fell, Nole had a second line of defense. This was his skintight, especially fitted pressure suit. The suit automatically ballooned out as the cockpit pressure fell, keeping an even pressure on Nole's body.

However, the suit curtailed Nole's movements, making them slow and robot-like. Nole's left hand dippeded the As the U2 over, switches that dropped the Gary Powers crashed his U2 deep inside Russia in 1960. At 3:15 p.m., 25 miles from Del Rio and 53,000 feet above, Nole's U2 suddenly developed electrical troubles. The malfunction sent the flaps of the U2's long, wide, glider-like wings into full extension, causing the plane to nose down and tumble through the sky. "I had no indication at all that the flaps were going said Nole.

"Down they went, the plane's nose dropped and the tail came up. It was that quick and immediate." As the U2's nose dropped, the craft picked up speed. The tail, subjected to tremendous down-load pressures for which the fragile craft was not designed, snapped off at the fuselage. Now, in quick sequence, Nole began a long-rehearsed series, of He knew he had just seconds to squeeze out of the U2's narrow cockpit before the plane broke up. First he shut off the jet engine.

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4-Amphi Plaza Goldwyn's No. 5-Swanway Plaza In Goldwyn's dead; suffocated in the vac-1 uum of his pressure suit. "The suit's made to force oxygen into you under pressure," he said. "It's not like breathing in air on the ground. In the suit, if you open your mouth, oxygen flows in and you have to make an effort to exhale.

"If I was unconscious when the chute opened, I would not be able to open the face plate of my helmet and breathe naturally. The suit is made to hold air inside, not to let it in 1 from the surrounding atmosphere." The second choice was equally forbidding. He could immediately open his parachute, find the emergency oxygen valve and let the life-giving oxygen into his suit from the supply strapped to his leg. But if he opened the parachute too soon, the speed of his hurtling body probably would shred the canopy of his chute. If not that, then the chute's opening shock could injure him fatally.

And if he delayed too long in opening chute, his falling body then unimpeded by the thin upper air would build up its own momentum until slowed by the thicker air near the Earth. A parachute opened then would have the same effect as one opened too soon. "As far as I was concerned, I had only one choice that was to get my oxygen turned on as soon as possible," he said. "As I fell, the ring of my parachute rip cord suddenly floated up in front of my face. I seized it and, pulled pulled it.

it against all my I training knew and against all logic. what my chances were from a high-speed bailout at high altitudes. "Up to then, there had been only one high-speed, highaltitude bailout. That was a T33 (jet trainer) pilot who bailed out at 33,000 feet. When they found his body it was ripped right up the middle from the opening shock of his chute." Yet Nole's chute opened gently, without a trace of shock.

Miraculously, Nole had pulled the rip cord when the speed of his body, lobbed from the plane like a curving baseball, had slowed to almost zero and before it started to fall, faster and faster in answer to gravity's pull. "It opened so gently that I was perfectly horizontal in the air, at, a level even with my chute," Nole said. "Then I swung back, just like a giant pendulum, 'til I was even with the chute on the other side. I was swinging so badly that my heels would go above ye the horizon. "I was scared to death that would swing so that I'd collapse my chute." The oscillation would not stop, even though Nole "climbed the shroud lines." As he floated down he tinued to execute giant, contrapeze-like swings that took him above his chute canopy.

The swings finally made Nole, a veteran pilot with 22 years of Air Force service, air sick. "I threw up over half of Texas," he said. When Nole radioed that he Abe La Vier, 61, 4-Year Resident Of Tucson, Dies A four-year resident of Tucson, Abe La Vier, 61, of 120 E. 34th died Friday. Retired after 13 years with the Firestone Mr.

La Vier came to Tucson from Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. He was born in Canal Fulton, Ohio. Survivors are his mother, Mrs. Margaret La Vier and a sister, Mrs. Earl Wamsley, both of Ohio.

Graveside services will be tomorrow at 2 p.m. at South Lawn Memorial Cemetery Friends may call at Brings Funeral Home today from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. -Sub Barb Is Commissioned PASCAGOULA, Aug. 24 (P)-The $70-million nuclear submarine Barb was commissioned as part of the Navy's underseas fleet Saturday.

Built to hunt and destroy other submarines, the Barb is the first of the Thresher class to be accepted since the Thresher was lost in the Atlantic, carrying 129 men to their death. The Barb was expected to remain here about a month before leaving to join the Pacific fleet. Her home base probably will be San Diego. She is the third nuclear sub built here and the 18th to join the fleet. Remarkable Bailout Led To Many Changes In Ship Col.

Jack Nole's bailout from a U2 at Parachutes have been redesigned to feet in 1957 confirmed what had vent excessive oscillation. been only theory. High-altitude bailout tests, labeled the As a result of his jump, the Air Force Man-High Project were begun in 1957 at instituted a number of changes in the U2. Edwards AFB, and were concluded It put a white cross on the green ball in 1960 at Holloman AFB, N.M., when valve of the emergency oxygen supply to Capt. Joseph Kittinger bailed out make it easier to find.

balloon gondola at an altitude of 102,800 Many changes were made in bailout feet, and made a free fall to 17,500 feet ings procedures. to radio, All oxygen and quick-disconnect heat lines fasten- were before At Edwards opening his AFB, ulammies resembling incorporated into the new ejection seat. the human body were ejected from U2s Now, instead of separate movements, a flying at 50,000 feet. The first two pilot need only pull his ejection seat trig- dummies withstood 25 forces- lethal to to start his emergency oxygen, discon- the human body--and plunged to earth in ger nect all lines to his pressure suit and open collapsed and shredded chutes. the canopy.

The official report summing up these Actually, the canopy is "opened" by the tests ended. with these words: ejection seat itself, which has a bar on top "Col. Nole survived his jump from to blast a hole in the plexiglass canopy. 53,000 feet by an act of God." He Left One Like It At 53,000 Col. Jack Nole, of the 4080th Strategic Wing of U2s at Davis-Monthan AFB, stands beside one of the graceful, glider-like planes he bailed out of in 1957.

The former D.M base commander jumped at 53,000 feet and survived to make medical history in U2 accident that caused the Air Force to revise its thinking on high-altitude, high-speed bailouts. landing gear and extended the dive brakes. This, he hoped, would slow the plane's increasing speed enough to allow him to bail out. Since the U2 at that time did not have an ejection seat to blast him free of the plane, Nole intended to wait until the plane was upside down again so that gravity would help pull him from the cockpit. If a plane were going too fast, the slipstream would become an invisible wall that would pin a pilot inside the cockpit.

"I couldn't see the tail," Nole said, "but I assumed that it broke off about the time I was busy hitting the switches. "All this time I was talking away on the radio to my mobile ground control, telling them what was happening. Some of my conversation was clear, some garbled because when the plane would turn upside down my head would hit the canopy and I'd be head down with my windpipe pinched. "I told the ground that I did not have either elevator or rudder control and that my plane was tumbling. "Mobile control said: 'Bail out, Bail "Hell," I said, "you don't have to tell me that." Nole was deep in some complicated moves.

He made the quick disconnect of the oxygen tubes and the radio wires to his pressure suit and cut off the heat wires to the Residential Commercial FENCES Chain Link Redwood Quality Built -Custom Designs 40 Color Combinations Phone 622-7836 ARIZONA FENCE CO. U.S., Soviet Claim Record For Jump Who holds the record for the highest parachute jump? The United States and Russia claim the honor. The U.S. says the highest jump was made by Capt. Joseph Kittinger Aug.

16, 1960, from 102,800 feet. Russia claims the record with a jump from 80,380 feet Nov. 1, 1962. The Federation Aeronautique Internationale, in Paris, France, recognizes the latter jump as the recThis is because the Federation had observers present. No Federation representatives witnessed Kittinger's jump.

of course, no observers were present to see Col. Jack Nole's unplanned leap near Del Rio, in 1957. glass face plate on his helmet. Then he released the seat safety belt and his shoulder harness. He reached up and unlocked the canopy handles which jettison the canopy.

By this time the plane was upside down again. When Nole's helmeted head struck the canopy once more the blow broke the canopy loose, ripping the plexiglass. 'At the thought the canopy had fallen away as it was supposed to," he said. "We didn't deduce until after the wreckage had been found and examined that it was my head that provided the impetus to knock off the canopy." The dark-haired commander said it seemed to take "for- 100 EAST CONGRESS RALLIS estaurant Eat at RALLIS RESTAURANT DOWNTOWN 1. YOU come first.

2. YOU are not a customer, but a friend. 3. YOUR patronage is appreciated! I FREE ever" for him to extricate himself from the plane but later examination of his recorded radio messages showed it took him only about 30 seconds from the time of the electrical malfunction to the time he cleared the cockpit. However, Nole still wasn't clear of the plane.

As he fell from the upside down plane his seat pack, containing a wide variety of survival equipment, snagged on the cockpit ledge and the slipstream banged his body against the fuselage of the plane. "There I was, bent over backwards against the fuselage, and the plane going end over end," 'he said. "I could see the horizon coming up again and I knew the plane was coming right side up for the third time. "I was afraid that the plane might break up completely at any time and I'd better be free of it when it happened. "I thrashed around, kicked and pulled and I finally came free.

Boy, if you don't think you find some hidden strength at a time like that you ought to have been in my shoes." The tumbling plane's centrifugal force actually lofted Nole away from the plane. He had fought free of the plane but he still was in terrible danger. In the confused seconds of the struggle to leave the cockpit. Nole couldn't find the tiny ball valve that turns on the builtin emergency supply of oxygen to his pressure suit. "Normally, the valve was on your left side, tucked into the crease between, your thigh and your Nole said, "but couldn't locate it when I was going end over end with the plane.

"The valve is green, pressure suit is green and the inside of the cockpit is green. Try looking for a little green doo-dad in green atmosphere sometime." By bailing out turning on his emergency oxygen supply, Nole had perhaps three minutes of air left. He had two choices. He could make a free fall through the airless upper atmosphere to 14,000 feet, where his parachute had been preset to open automatically. But it would take more than three minutes to drop that far and he would be unconscious when the chute opened.

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Phone 624-6646 was bailing out there were two other U2s in the vicinity and a U3, a Cessna twoengine plane used as a "seeing eye" for landing the narrow-vision U2's. But it was an F86 fighter pilot that saw him first. The F86, flying from Luke AFB, Phoenix, to Kelly AFB, was at an altitude of 41,000 feet when the pilot saw Nole's chute floating far above him. The pilot was in a routine radio conversation with San Antonio, when he suddenly said: "Say, I think I see a parachute above me." There was a a a a a a a pause, and then: "Naw, it couldn't be a chute." He resumed his radio conversation and flew on. It wasn't until he landed that he learned that he had, indeed, seen a chute.

In 1957, even Air Force pilots. were U2's not high-altitude aware of cap- the abilities. The F86 pilot could not believe his eyes when he saw a chute far above his own operating ceiling. Meanwhile, at between 000 and 30,000 feet, Maj. Dick Atkin's U2 spotted 'chute.

Next, Capt. Warren Boyd saw Nole and the chase plane pilot, Capt. Dick Leavitt, was third. All three planes flew slow circles around the 'chute as it descended. "I waved at them and raised both arms overhead to let them know I was all right," Nole said.

"But they didn't see me. All three were radioing back messages that Nole wasn't showing any signs of life." Nole was approaching the ground now, still oscillating violently. "I figured I had the chance of landing hard either face down or on my back," he said. "But my luck still held. "I came right down over one of those small, rolling Texas hills.

On one side of the hill was this big, flattopped rock. I drifted over the top of the hill and as my body swung back my seat pack hit first, catching on the rock and jerking me to a stop in the air so that I fell backwards to the ground without injury. "I didn't suffer a scratch. My flying helmet had one little hole, about the size of a BB hole, in it and that was all. "I got to my feet, took off my helmet, unbuckled my parachute harness and hiked to the top of the hill just as a helicopter flew over.

"It was in the air on a routine rescue training flight when they heard I had bailed out. They flew back to the base, landed and picked up a flight surgeon and flew right to the spot where the planes overhead had radioed I landed. "I don't remember saying anything to the 'copter pilots. I just walked up and got in. But inside I got out a cigarette and asked the doctor for a light.

But the doctor's hands were shaking so badly I finally had to take the lighter and light the cigarette myself. I said, 'what if I had broken both my 'Why, what do you he asked. 'Well, Doc, it looks as it you were in quite a get here. You left little black bag behind at the $503,481 In Damages Suit For Show-Stealing Is Won By Frenchman BAILEY HEARING AID CENTER 603 N. 4th Ave.

Tucson, Arizona Sirs: I have some difficulty UNDERSTANDING 0 men women child radio-Tv groups Please send me without obligation "The Inside Story of Nerve Deafness" and "How to Regain Lost Name Address Phone CARSON CITY, court jury Friday awarded Bardy damages of $503,481 ered out of the bare bosom Vegas from Europe. The jury award climaxed a three-weeks' long trial in the court of Judge William C. Mathes. The white-haired showman's suit had been brought against the El Rancho Vegas Hotel, MCA Artists and a representative of the American Guild of Variety Artists (AGVA). When jury foreman Robert H.

Childers of Carson City read the verdict Bardy broke into a big smile. The jury of nine men and three women awarded Bardy $27,281 compensatory damages for his ruptured contract with Beldon R. Katleman, El Rancho owner, who closed the Frenchman's revue; 200, in compensatory damages on a conspiracy charge, and $225,000 for punitive damages and expenses. Bardy brought his revue to Las Vegas in 1959. He called it "The New Eve," La Nouvelle Eve.

In his suit he said the defendants conspired against him to take the show from him while trading on his reputation putting a with a substitute show similar name. The show that played the El Rancho after Bardy's show was closed was called "The Nude Eve," La Nou Eve. Bardy instituted the suit more than two years ago. More than 500 exhibits and pieces of evidence were brought into play during the course of the litigation. Stable Gear Valued At $1,980 Stolen Deputies are investigating the theft of $1,980 in saddles and other equipment from Rillito Riding Stables, 1018 E.

River Rd. Burglars broke into a tack room at the stables late Thursday night, the sheriff's office reported yesterday. They took 12 saddles valued at $1,680 in addition to 12 bridles and 24 blankets. Aug. 24 (AP)-A federal district French night club impresario Rene on his claim he had been slickshow he had brought to Las Engineer Grants Awarded To Two Of A Juniors University of Arizona agricultural engineering scholarships for the academic year 1963-64 have been awarded to two juniors in the College of Agriculture.

They are Wayne Arnold Stuhr of Wellton and Arthur Matthew Allen of Yuma. Stuhr, son of Mr. and Mrs. Martin Stuhr, is a 1961 graduate of Antelope Union High School. He is a member of the UA Band, Alpha Gamma Rho and Agricultural Engineers' Assn.

M. Yuma, was graduAllen, son of Mrs. Arthur ated in 1961 from Yuma High School. He is a member of the Newman Club at the university. The scholarships carry an annual stipend of $600 each.

Reclamation Unit Awards Contracts WASHINGTON, Aug. 24 (P) The Bureau of Reclamation has awarded two contracts for work in northern Arizona and Utah. Rep. George F. Senner, D- said Stromberg-Carlson would provide $21,818 worth of telephone equipment for Glen Canyon and Flaming Gorge dams in Colorado River Storage Project.

A $20,313 Fish and Wildlife Service contract was given to Stanley J. Dewsneup of Page for rental of tractors to be used in spreading gravel on and roads at the Fish Springs National Wildlife Refuge in Dugway, Utah. In both retail and wholesale volume, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Philadelphia lead the nation. FOOTHILLS Coronado ESTATES Swan at Skyline Dr. FOOTHILL LOTS INA ROAD CORONADO NATL.

FOREST FABULOUS VIEW Ze CITY WATER AVENUE nEw PAVED STREETS SEWERS IN Coronado ALL UTILITIES AVENUE FOOTHILLS ESTATES ROAD UNDERGROUND ONLY NOOTH GOAD RIVER SWAN DOWN LOWELL Q. AD 8 Payments As Low As $49 per MONTH PHONE -For Information 793-2212.