On This Day in Aviation History: The Caterpillar Club and Lindbergh

Caterpillar Club

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia downloaded from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caterpillar_Club on March 5, 2025.

A pin from a parachute company, possibly Switlik or Standard Parachute. This style is common in catalogs and auctions of military memorabilia.  Courtesy Wikipedia.

“The Caterpillar Club is an informal association of people who have successfully used a parachute to bail out of a disabled aircraft. After authentication by the parachute maker, applicants receive a membership certificate and a distinctive lapel pin. The nationality of the person whose life was saved by parachute and ownership of the aircraft are not factors in determining qualification for membership; anybody whose life was saved by using a parachute after bailing out of a disabled aircraft is eligible. The requirement that the aircraft is disabled naturally excludes parachuting enthusiasts in the normal course of a recreational jump, or those involved in military training jumps.

“The Airborne Systems company of New Jersey continues the tradition of certifying members and awarding pins to this day.

“The club was founded by Leslie Irvin of the Irvin Airchute Company of Canada in 1922. (Though Leslie Irvin is credited with inventing the first free-fall parachute in 1919, parachutes stored in canisters had saved the lives of observers in balloons and several German and Austro-Hungarian pilots of disabled military aircraft in the First World War.)

“The name ‘Caterpillar Club’ refers to the silk threads that made the original parachutes, thus recognizing the debt owed to the silkworm.

“‘Life depends on a silken thread’ is the club’s motto.”

Those of us (men) who have looked up to see a parachute gloriously opened up above us, whether we were looking up into that open parachute skirt because of purposefully jumping from an aircraft or because of being forced to bail out of, or be ejected from, a disabled aircraft, well, we always think, “That’s the most beautiful skirt I’ve ever looked under.”

And as far as that “beautiful skirt” applies to this day in aviation history, let’s look at a famous aviator who looked up beautiful skirts at least four times and was inducted four-times (downloaded today from the Good Fellows Historical Society of the Quiet Birdmen website March 5, 2025) into the Caterpillar Club.

On this day in aviation history and according the Goodfellow Historical Foundation, “Charles A. Lindbergh executed his first (of four) Caterpillar Club jumps.

“Lindbergh enrolled as a flying cadet in the U.S. Army in 1924 and his first emergency jump was from an open cockpit, single-seat SE-5 scout biplane, as a student pilot at Kelly Field, near San Antonio, Texas. Lindbergh and another cadet on a training mission had a midair collision at about 5,000 feet as they attacked a DH4B ‘enemy’ bomber.

“Lindbergh’s excerpted official report noted: ‘I passed above the DH and a moment later felt a slight jolt, followed by a crash.  I closed the throttle and saw an SE-5 with Lieutenant McCallister in the cockpit a few feet away on my left. He was apparently unhurt and getting ready to jump.’ ‘Our ships were locked together with the fuselages approximately parallel. I removed the belt, climbed out to the trailing edge of the wing—the ship was then in a nearly vertical position—and jumped backward from the ship as far as possible.’ ‘I had no difficulty in operating the pull ring and experienced no sensation of falling. The wreckage was falling nearly straight down and for some time I fell in line with its path. Fearing the wreckage might fall on me, I did not pull the rip cord until I had dropped several hundred feet and into the clouds.’

“‘During this time, I had turned one-half revolution and was falling flat and face downward. The parachute functioned perfectly; almost as soon as I pulled the rip cord and the risers jerked on my shoulders, the leg straps tightened, my head went down, and the chute was fully opened….’  ‘Next I turned my attention to locating a landing place. I was over mesquite and drifting in the general direction of a plowed field which I reached by slipping the chute. Shortly before striking the ground, I was drifting backwards but was able to swing around in the harness just as I landed on the side of a ditch less than 100 feet from the edge of the mesquite. Although the impact of the landing was too great for me to remain standing, I was not injured. The parachute was still held open by the wind and did not collapse until I pulled on one group of the shroud lines.’ (Lt. McCallister also bailed out successfully.)

“Lindbergh wrote about parachutes and military flying: ‘There is a saying in the (US Army Air) service about the parachute: If you need it and haven’t got it, you’ll never need it again!’”

Lindbergh bailed out of disabled aircraft four times and survived them all.  He must have had nine lives and the “luck-o-the Irish” in addition to having Providential protection.

Onward and upward!

Sources:  Wikipedia.com/Goodfellows Historical Foundation