May 05, 1954 - John Cobb's racing car used in Demonstration of retractable aircraft brake...

May 05, 1954 - John Cobb's racing car used in Demonstration of retractable aircraft brake parachute: Early in 1951, the G.Q. Parachute Company began work on a scheme to dispense with the necessity for jettisoning an aircraft braking parachute at the end of the landing run. A storage system was devised by which the parachute could by automatically repacked ready for the next operation. It was decided that the parachute should be stowed in a telescopic cylinder, the rear and outer part of the cylinder being arranged to slide forwards over the inner and forward part at the same time as the canopy was ejected rearwards by a piston engergised by a large coil spring. To retract the parachute it is only necessary to switch on the electric winch motor. The attachment strop and parachute canopy. Seeing its possibilities as a test vehicle for aircraft brake parachutes, the G.C. Parachute company purchased the late John Cobb's record-breaking Napier Railton racing car of 450 h.p. Photo shows a head-on view of the late John Cobb's racing car driven by Sir Raymond Quilter at high speed releases the braking parachute during a demonstration at Dunsfold Aerodome, near Guilford today