The brief story of “Major,” a St. Bernard who made six successful parachute jumps up to 26,000 feet, from Air Sea Rescue Bulletin, U.S. Coast Guard, No. 2, July 1944.
Wright Field has also designed a dog parachute harness which might be adapted to dog rescue work. It was developed primarily in order to use dogs as experimental animals in tests to determine parachute opening shock at various altitudes. The dog was dropped along with man-size rubber dummies to compare the shock-absorbing effect of a live body with an inanimate dummy.
Equipped with this harness and a 24-foot parachute, a St. Bernard named Major made six successful drops at altitudes of 1500, 7000, 15000 and 26000 feet. For the high jumps he wore in addition a fur-lined flying suit and an oxygen mask.
The Wright Field harness, like the Rimini model, has no release mechanism, but development of a small simplified landing release is close to completion.
