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The Caterpillar Club originated in October 1922 at Wright Field, Ohio, when a suggestion was made to start a club composed only of persons whose lives were saved by the use of the parachute when forced to leave an aircraft in flight. The name comes from the fact that parachutes were made from silk, produced from the caterpillar cocoon. By 1940 there were some 700 members of the Caterpillar Club, including such noteworthy members as Charles Lindbergh
NASM.XXXX.0576
Caterpillar Club
1922-1940
Falk Harmel, gift, 1967, XXXX-0576, unknown
1.35 Cubic feet ((3 legal document boxes))
National Air and Space Museum Archives
This collection includes photographs of most of the members, and some of their aircraft and crash sites. There are also detailed reports of each of the 700 documented emergency parachute jumps as well as newspaper articles and correspondence about the Caterpillar Club and Lt. Col. Falk Harmel, who maintained this collection.
Material is subject to Smithsonian Terms of Use. Should you wish to use NASM material in any medium, please submit an Application for Permission to Reproduce NASM Material, available at Permissions Requests
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Aeronautics
Aircraft accidents
Parachutes
Aircraft survival equipment
Periodicals
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Correspondence
Photographs
Publications