Caterpillar Club

The Airborne Systems company of New Jersey continues the tradition of certifying members and awarding pins to this day.

[2]) The name "Caterpillar Club" refers to the silk threads that made the original parachutes, thus recognising the debt owed to the silkworm.

On 20 October 1922, Lieutenant Harold R. Harris, chief of the McCook Field Flying Station, jumped from a disabled Loening PW-2A monoplane fighter.

Other famous members include General James Doolittle, Charles Lindbergh,[5] aviation pioneer Augustus Post, Larry "Scrappy" Blumer and (retired) astronaut John Glenn.

[6] In 1922 Leslie Irvin agreed to give a gold pin to every person whose life was saved by one of his parachutes.

In addition to the Irvin Air Chute Company, other parachute manufacturers have also issued caterpillar pins for successful jumps.

[7] The Switlik Parachute Company of Trenton, New Jersey issued both gold and silver caterpillar pins.

More recently, a group of twelve skydivers were denied membership when one of them fouled the plane's tail and caused it to fall from the sky.