recycling nylon for parachutes?

[heidihagen 0]

during ww2, the military collected nylons to be reused to make parachutes. is this correct? what parts? i can't imagine the canopy being composed of such a fragile REUSED material. does anyone know?

i didn't lose my mind, i sold it on ebay. .:need a container to fit 5'4", 110 lb. cypres ready & able to fit a 170 main (or slightly smaller):.[/ce

[wartload 0]

You sure that it wasn't silk stockings that they recycled? Nylon was new then, and the nylon stockings were of notoriously poor quality.

[riggermick 7]

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during ww2, the military collected nylons to be reused to make parachutes. is this correct? what parts? i can't imagine the canopy being composed of such a fragile REUSED material. does anyone know?

As far as I know nylon wasn't "discovered" until late during or after WW2 ended. All branches of the services were still using silk during that period. BTW there's noth.ing wrong with using recycled material as long as it meets it's specs.

Mick

[mjosparky 4]

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during ww2, the military collected nylons to be reused to make parachutes. is this correct? what parts? i can't imagine the canopy being composed of such a fragile REUSED material. does anyone know?

As far as I know nylon wasn't "discovered" until late during or after WW2 ended. All branches of the services were still using silk during that period. BTW there's noth.ing wrong with using recycled material as long as it meets it's specs.

Mick

Mick,,

Found this through Google:

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First U.S. Commercial Nylon Fiber Production: 1939, DuPont Company

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Event 06-06-1942: Parachutes were tested with dead weights until Adeline Gray who became the first human to jump with a nylon parachute. She was employed as a parachute rigger with the Pioneer Parachute Company in Connecticut.

Sparky

My idea of a fair fight is clubbing baby seals

[heidihagen 0]

cool, thanks for your help guys.
i was just curious and had trouble narrowing down my search. here is what i came up with (britannica) if interested:

During World War II, nylon replaced Asian silk in parachutes. It was also used to make tires, tents, ropes, ponchos, and other military supplies. At the outset of the War, cotton accounted for more than 80 percent of all fibres used, and manufactured and wool fibres accounted for the remaining 20 percent. By August, 1945, manufactured fibres had risen to 25 percent, and cotton had dropped to 75 percent.

... that first sentence pretty much sums up what i was looking for

i didn't lose my mind, i sold it on ebay. .:need a container to fit 5'4", 110 lb. cypres ready & able to fit a 170 main (or slightly smaller):.[/ce

[wartload 0]

Silk played a huge role in early American aviation. It was such a fashionable fabric at in the late 1800s and early 1900s that special express "silk trains" were chartered to speed the fabric from west coast harbors to the New York fashion district.

It was very strong, light, and could be varnished with a fairly flexible concoction to make it essentially 0 porosity.

It was first used to make gas balloon envelopes, then for the envelopes of the early dirigibles. Some of the wealthier (not the Wrights) early airplane manufacturers used it to cover the wings of some of the first aeroplanes, including a fabric made of two sheets of silk with a very thin layer of natural gum rubber sandwiched between them ("Baldwinized" cloth, used on many of the earliest Curtiss and Curtiss-type planes).

Want to know something that almost no skydivers could tell you today -- the origin on the name "bungee cords"? Glad you asked!

An early type of rather stretchy silk was (and is) called "Pongee". Cords made from this silk weren't intended for use to open packs, but they were relatively springy. When we started making stretchy cords out of elastic cased inside nylon, they kept the old name, even with new uses ... just like "hit the silk" continued to be used, even when the canopies were all made of cotton twill or nylon.

[riggerrob 643]

If we are referring to the North American market ... it gradually shifted from silk to nylon during World War 2 as the Japanese restricted sales of silk made in China and India.
All combatent nations restricted civilian sales of strategic materials like silk. Women's silk stockings became expensive and rare. More than one (wartime) bridal dress was sewn from a "surplus" parachute. Keep in mind that silk is "graded" for a variety of uses. Parachute silk needs to be strong and have consistent-sized fibres, but colour is less important.

It is rumoured that the Canadian Parachute Industry was the first to convert to nylon. Only a couple of Canadian factories sewed parachutes during WW2: Irvin Industries in Fort Erie and Pioneer in Smith's Falls, Ontario.
I have only packed two silk parachutes. They were sewn for the US Navy during 1945. After I re-packed them, they went to a museum.

[Beatnik 2]

Nylon was first manufactured by DuPont and revealed at the 1939 World's Fair but it was actually first produced in 1935. Later in 1942 the Pioneer Parachute Company, in Connecticut, was the first to produce and test nylon parachutes. Originally tested with dead weights then Adeline Gray volunteered to test the parachute and made the first jump.

At the beginning of WWII, the silk supply was cut off and the search for new a new material took place, in 1942 the search was pretty much over. Parachutes were still made of silk during WWII because there was still stock of the material. Nylon was tested and was found to be superior to silk.

[riggerrob 643]

I suspect that the Pioneer Parachute factory (Smith's Falls, Ontario) was the first to make nylon parachutes, but records are difficult to find for a factory that closed many decades ago.
I wonder if there are any records in the municipal archives??????

[riggerrob 643]

Silk was used for early hot-air balloons.
By the 1890s many barnstormer sewed their hot-air balloons with less-expensive muslin.
By World War 1, hydrogen gas required tighter fabric, so gold-beaters-skins were standardized on German Zeppelins. Gold-beaters-skin is made from the intestines of farm animals. Part way through WW 1 the German Army forbade the manufacture of sausages, because all the domestic production of intestines was needed for Zeppelins. Can you imagine a German Army marching without sausages?????
Hah!
Hah!
As for why Zeppelins used hydrogen gas despite its flammability .... ????? Hydrogen gas is readily available in the atmosphere and can be "cracked" with simple cooling towers. OTOH less flammable helium gas
is a by-product of the petroleum industry is is only harvested from a few oil wells in the USA. Helium is diminishing resource ( similar to phosphorus) and known reserves may be depleted within my lifetime.

On a more amusing note, during WW 2 the United States Navy encouraged thousands of Mid-Western farmers to grow hemp for ropes, sails, etc. After the war, the Drug Administration tried to eradicate hemp for fear that drug addicts would smoke it to get high. The irony is that Industrial grade hemp (rope quality) contains an insignificant amount of the psycho-active drug THC. Feral hemp plants still fill farm ditches throughout the American Mid-West.
Hah!
Hah!
.... and Washington wonders why we call them hypocrits!!! B
Hah!
Hah!