Parachuting animals
[1] In a 19 September 1783 demonstration in Versailles observed by Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI, a duck, a rooster, and a sheep were carried by a Montgolfier brother balloon for eight minutes.
Later that year, a Mr Durry in Ireland repeated the feat, with a dog "suspended over the side of the gondola, wearing nothing but a parachute, and dropped".
A slow-burning fuse was set that released the basket while the balloon was mid-air, dropping the animals on the ground near Bush Hill.
[6] A writer for the City Gazette in South Carolina claimed that Blanchard had thrown over 60 animals "from the height of the clouds" that had parachuted to safety.
[8] That same year, balloonist Charles Green parachuted a monkey from the Surrey Zoological Gardens named Jacopo from his balloon as he was over Walworth.
In 1886, the aeronaut Emil Leandro Melville in San Francisco repeatedly parachuted a small arboreal monkey from his balloon.
His handler Mademoiselle Eichlerette reported training three "Monkey Baldwins" and toured India and the United States for six years with her act.
While Keyes failed to reach the powerhouse of the Austin Dam, Jennie jumped from her shoulder with a miniature parachute and descended to the waters below.
[12] William Kalt, who wrote a book about Keyes, said: "I don't mean to laugh, but so many of those news reports are similar, and they almost always end by mentioning that the monkey was not harmed.
"[13]A trained bonnet macaque named Mrs. Murphy made at least 150 parachute jumps during her tour of Europe and the United States in 1899 and 1900.
[18] A second drop, by parachutist Saul Debever and his monkey, was halted under threat of prosecution by the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
[21] Later in 1935, an article in Popular Science featured a successful Soviet experimental parachute for a locked coop for dogs that sprang open when it hit the ground.
[25] Rob, a Collie, was alleged to have made over 20 parachute descents during the North African campaign of World War II, serving with the SAS, and was awarded a Dickin Medal.
The device consisted of a bomb-shaped casing with over a thousand compartments, each containing a hibernating Mexican free-tailed bat with a small, timed incendiary bomb attached.
Dropped from a bomber at dawn, the casings would deploy a parachute mid-flight and open to release the bats, which would then disperse and roost in eaves and attics in a 20–40-mile radius (32–64 km).
The incendiaries, which were set on timers, would then ignite and start fires in inaccessible places in the largely wood and paper constructions of the Japanese cities that were the weapon's intended target.
Lt. Col. K. I. Barlow suggested parachuting the animals and arranged trial drops at the Air Transport Development Centre in Chaklala, Punjab.
[32] Jacksonia, a monkey captured from the island of Luzon, made two jumps by parachute in Japan during World War II with a sergeant from the 11th Airborne Division.
[34] Boudgie, an African parachuting monkey, received a North Africa campaign ribbon and was credited with saving the life of her handler four times.
[36] The Asian black bear Rocky was born in 1953 and purchased from a Kumamoto zoo to serve as a mascot for the U.S. 187th Airborne Regimental Combat Team during the Korean War.
[37][38] During the Vietnam War, supply drops made to isolated outposts could include livestock such as chickens, ducks, pigs, and cows.
[42] Mike Forsythe and his dog Cara set a record for the highest tandem dog-human parachute deployment in 2011, making their descent from 30,100 ft (9,200 m).
During World War II, Major, a 145 lb (66 kg) St. Bernard, was fitted with a custom oxygen mask before being dropped from a plane at 26,000 ft (7,900 m).
Witnesses to the test, which was to determine the impact of high altitudes on parachute straps, reported seeing Major dogpaddling during his descent.
The first supersonic ejection test occurred on 21 March 1962 at the speed of Mach 1.3 at 35,000 ft (11,000 m) and the bear survived the nearly eight-minute parachute descent.
[47] In July 1962, four hamsters, two rhesus monkeys, and several flower beetles were sent in a 39-hour, 1,920-mile (3,090 km) high-altitude balloon trip from Goose Bay, Labrador, as part of an experiment by NASA's Ames Research Center to test the effects of radiation.
The Idaho Fish and Game Department produced a 14-minute film about the relocation and the program was written up in an April 1950 article in the Journal of Wildlife Management titled "Transplanting Beavers by Airplane and Parachute".
Due to snow, the marooned flocks were inaccessible by land, so the Civil Air Patrol arranged for a "doglift" where sheepdogs were parachuted in.
[54][55] The United Kingdom's Royal Air Force delivered cats, equipment and supplies to remote regions of the then-British colony of Sarawak (today part of Malaysia), on the island of Borneo in 1960.
[62] The Division of Wildlife Resources states that restocking the lakes by air is cheaper than transporting the fish overland and less stressful for the animals.
