Airborne lifeboat

[1] Air-sea rescue by flying boat or floatplane was a method used by various nations before World War II to pick up aviators or sailors who were struggling in the water.

[citation needed] The airborne lifeboat was developed to provide downed airmen with a more navigable and seaworthy vessel that could be sailed greater distances than the rubber dinghy.

One of the reasons necessitating this was that when ditching or abandoning an aircraft near enemy-held territory, often the tides and winds would propel the rubber dinghy toward shore, despite the efforts of the occupants to paddle away, resulting in their eventual capture.

[citation needed] The first air-dropped lifeboat was British, a 32-foot (10 m) wooden canoe-shaped boat designed in 1943 by Uffa Fox to be dropped by Royal Air Force (RAF) Vickers Warwick heavy bombers for the rescue of aircrew downed in the Channel.

[6] In early 1953, Saunders-Roe at Anglesey completed the Mark 3 airborne lifeboat to be fitted underneath the Avro Shackleton maritime reconnaissance aircraft.

Upon touching the water, the parachutes were released to blow away, and a drogue opened to slow the boat's drift and aid in the survivors reaching the lifeboat.

At the same time, two rockets fired, one to each side, sending out floating lines to provide easier access to the lifeboat for ditched airmen.

[7] In the United States, Andrew Higgins evaluated the Fox boat and felt it was too weak to survive mishap in emergency operations.

Their solution was an air dropped life boat which before it inflated in the water, looked like a torpedo and could be carried by almost any aircraft in service that had heavy wing pylons.