German-American brothers have saved 200 lives with a parachute for the whole plane if its engine dies

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Parachutes now are so strong they can gently lower a plane with engine trouble to the ground, or even something as heavy as a tank (Russian air force military photo).T

The Klapmeier brothers, Dale and Alan, are two inventors of German ancestry from the Midwest (Illinois and Wisconsin) who are now saving lives with their own new small plane that has a built-in parachute. 

 

Dale Klapmeier 

 

Wiki:

The Klapmeier brothersAlan Lee Klapmeier (born October 6, 1958)[1] and Dale Edward Klapmeier (born July 2, 1961),[1] are retired American aircraft designers and aviation entrepreneurs who together founded the Cirrus Design Corporation in 1984. Under the leadership of the Klapmeiers, Cirrus was the first aircraft manufacturer to install a whole-plane parachute recovery system as a standard on all its models—designed to lower the airplane (and occupants) safely to the ground in case of an emergency.[2][3] The device is attributed with saving over 200 lives to date.[4] From the brothers’ use of all-composite airframe construction and glass panel cockpits on production aircraft, Cirrus is known for having revolutionized general aviation for modern light aircraft pilots.[5][6][7][8][9]

 

Forbes magazine named Cirrus’s highly popular single-engine SR-series (the SR20 and SR22certified in 1998 and 2000 respectively) Best Private Airplane, saying “the Klapmeier brothers built the first genuinely new plane in the sky in many years”,[10] Time magazine regarded them as “giving lift to the small-plane industry with an easy-to-fly design”,[11] and Flying magazine ranked Alan and Dale at number 17 on its list of the 51 Heroes of Aviation; they are the two highest-ranked living people on the list.[7] The Klapmeier brothers were inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in 2014.[9][12]

The brothers started Cirrus in the basement of their parents’ rural dairy barn near Baraboo, Wisconsin.[13][14] Their first design, the VK-30 homebuilt aircraft, was introduced in 1987, although sales of the kit fluctuated and deliveries ultimately ceased only a few years later.[15] As the company grew they moved it in 1994 to Duluth, Minnesota, where from 2003 until his departure from Cirrus in 2009, Alan had heavy influence over the early design and development of the Vision Jet. Dale then continued the program, leading it to certification in 2016 and production in the ensuing years. The aircraft won the Collier Trophy in 2018 for representing the first jet of its kind to enter the market.[16][17]

 

….started in Baraboo, Wisconsin, eh?

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/dozens-wisconsin-high-school-students-apparently-give-nazi-salute-viral-n935241

 

……This is just the latest case of the Klapmeier plane’s parachute saving lives:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13193723/parachute-Cirrus-Santa-Rosa-crash-plane.html

 

This really a great thing — yet again from good  old German DNA — because so  many, many fine people have been killed in small plane crashes, and of course also in crashes of larger planes. With the parachute, at least the plane hits the ground very slowly and passengers  can get out with no or minor injuries.

Airline travel with a big jet is 20 times safer than driving a car, but small-plane travel is as dangerous as driving a car the same distance.

As a kid, I and many others liked the “Ozzie and Harriet Show” — a family drama/comedy series that was shot in the Nelson’s actual home.  And one of the two teenage boys in it was Ricky Nelson, a gifted singer. Tragically, he died in a small-plane crash in 1980.

***

I remember the family comedy hit series “The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet” … 14 years on television, 1952-66  – how nice and clean the humor was, the music was melodic (the dark-haired Ricky (bottom right) sang fantastically … and it was a real American family, with many happenings from their life — marriage, school and raising kids — and the whole series was actually filmed in their real home!

Wiki:

The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet is an American television sitcom that aired on ABC from October 3, 1952, to April 23, 1966, and starred the real-life Nelson family. After a long run on radio, the show was brought to television, where it continued its success, initially running simultaneously on radio and TV. In terms of seasons, it was the longest running live-action sitcom in U.S. television history until It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia surpassed it on December 1, 2021 (though it still retains the record in terms of total episodes produced: 435).[1] The series starred the entertainment duo of Ozzie Nelson and his wife, singer Harriet Nelson, and their sons, David and Ricky.

The man (his name was really “Ozzie” [Oswald]) wore the pants in the family, but was very nice to his wife (she was also really named “Harriet,” and was a born “Schneider”, i.e. of German descent.

Ozzie was a tough-love father toward their two sons. All four of them had blue eyes. (A scientific photo study revealed in 1900 50% of all Americans had blue eyes).

ozzie-and-harriet-nelson-show-1960

A nice episode:

 

A great soft country-rock hit by Rickie Nelson:

rickie-nelson-singer

..https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V77qc-77Rkc

 

While touring the United States, en route to a New Year’s Eve concert in Dallas, Ricky Nelson was killed in a plane accident on December 31, 1985, in DeKalb in Bowie County in northeast Texas.[14]

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We must cherish ourselves, and the Klapmeier brothers are just one example of our white Aryan greatness!

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