# Did the bear get a parachute? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 21, 2001, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-bear-get-a-parachute/58935 "2001-03-21T23:56:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Ivan-Osokin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/4491bb/32.png) [@Ivan-Osokin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ivan-Osokin)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2001, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-bear-get-a-parachute/58935/1 "2001-03-21T23:56:48Z")
OK. On a “this date in history” type site (Fine. It’s [Rotten.com](http://Rotten.com).) that I frequent, it mentions that one today in 1962… “A bear becomes the first creature to be ejected at supersonic speeds.” Forgive my ignorance as well as my inability to find anything about this through a search engine… But, a co-worker and I are left wondering why it was done. For that matter, why a bear? And, well, did the bear get a chute? Anyone know? I half assume that it was done to help determine whether or not a jet pilot could safely eject at high speeds, but I’m not certain. ---
**Author:** ![Shiva](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/85e7bf/32.png) [@Shiva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shiva)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2001, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-bear-get-a-parachute/58935/2 "2001-03-22T01:46:50Z")
> [@](#): > > (I)n 1955 the first successful supersonic ejection was made by a pilot from his stricken North American F100A Super Sabre after the aircraft went into an uncontrollable dive. The ejection occurred at Mach 1.05 during a test flight, and while he was injured in the process, pilot George Smith survived the accident and fully recovered. Above from: [http://www.lanset.com/aeolusaero/Articles/seat\_history.htm](http://www.lanset.com/aeolusaero/Articles/seat_history.htm) Warning! Cheesy MIDI embed on above page! ---
**Author:** ![Shiva](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/85e7bf/32.png) [@Shiva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shiva)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2001, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-bear-get-a-parachute/58935/3 "2001-03-22T01:58:23Z")
I found a possible source for the [rotten.com](http://rotten.com) info on a rather dramatic (but factually sound) page on early high speed deceleration testing: [http://users.deltacomm.com/writerl/jon/jonwft/drama/stapp.htm](http://users.deltacomm.com/writerl/jon/jonwft/drama/stapp.htm) > [@](#): > > Earlier scientists had used human corpses to test the upper limits of physical endurance, but Dr. Stapp had started out with anesthetized animals. Monkeys. Bears. Pigs. > [@](#): > > Specifically, it took about one-fourth the energy to injure an animal as it did to kill him. If a hog or a bear died at 200 Gs, for instance, he wouldn’t sustain any injury at all up to about 50 Gs. ---
**Author:** ![Ivan-Osokin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/4491bb/32.png) [@Ivan-Osokin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ivan-Osokin)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2001, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-bear-get-a-parachute/58935/4 "2001-03-22T02:00:00Z")
Thanks for the link. Thanks for the midi warning as well. Ugh. So, if someone had actually ejected at a supersonic speed in 1955, what was up with the bear in 1962? Did they forget about the guy in 1955? Were they trying to expand on their knowledge of bears? i.e “Well, we know that they do in fact shit in the woods. Lets see if they can fly.” I guess I’m only being half serious, but I swear that I’ve been wondering why they would use a bear (And whether poor Smokey got a parachute.) all day long. Actually, I’ve been trying to imagine what was going through the bear’s head at the time. I swear to God that I’ll send a million dollars to anyone that could send me a video clip of the bear at the time of ejection. ---
**Author:** ![Ivan-Osokin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/4491bb/32.png) [@Ivan-Osokin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ivan-Osokin)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2001, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-bear-get-a-parachute/58935/5 "2001-03-22T02:02:41Z")
Thanks for the additional info as well. (Must have posted it while I was responding to the first.) Kinda makes sense. Something along the lines of “If this bear comes back liquified, image what will happen to Joe Pilot.” ---
**Author:** ![Sofa\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/58956e/32.png) [@Sofa\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sofa_King)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2001, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-bear-get-a-parachute/58935/6 "2001-03-22T03:35:30Z")
INRI: [Ham](http://www.findagrave.com/pictures/2646.html), first Astrochimp. Perhaps “creature” doesn’t include we humans (Koko, you’re not on the 'net yet, are you?). ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2001, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-bear-get-a-parachute/58935/7 "2001-03-22T03:58:52Z")
I want to know the details on this. Who has access to a school with outdated referance guides for teachers. The best I came up with is “the following is from NASA, The First 35 Years 1958-1983: A Resource for Teachers” published by NASA and printed by the Superintentendent of Documents, Goverment Printing Office, Washington D.C. 1983 page 96." Source [http://vesuvius.jsc.nasa.gov/er/seh/daysMar3.html](http://vesuvius.jsc.nasa.gov/er/seh/daysMar3.html) I’m afraid the pages might be transient and included their information, in case the article disapears in a few days. ---
**Author:** ![donkeyoatey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e47c2d/32.png) [@donkeyoatey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/donkeyoatey)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2001, 7:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-bear-get-a-parachute/58935/8 "2001-03-22T07:32:46Z")
Ivan, this page says that the first life saved by an ejection seat was in May,1949. The first airborne ejection was by a German test pilot named Schenk in 1942. The first airborne ejections (outside of Germany), first using manniquins, then tranquilized bears began in May,1945.I would have to guess that they got parachutes, but haven’t found anything stating that or talking about the success. [http://www.otago.ac.nz/Aviation\_Medicine/course-content/history.html](http://www.otago.ac.nz/Aviation_Medicine/course-content/history.html) ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2001, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-bear-get-a-parachute/58935/9 "2001-03-22T14:21:15Z")
I just keep picturing State O’Maine from _The Hotel New Hampshire_ by John Irving sitting in a plane, casually looking out the window and thinking to himself, “Now, I was just riding my motorcycle a minute ago… This is certainly not my motorcycle…” _WHOOSH!_ ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2001, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-bear-get-a-parachute/58935/10 "2001-03-23T23:23:13Z")
All Phobia’s link is the factoid that on March 21, 1962, A bear became the first creature to be ejected at supersonic speeds, followed by the information that _what follows_, on the Ranger program, is from “NASA: The First 25 Years”. So finding a copy of this won’t help. However, Google, “supersonic bear ejection”. [http://www.bestweb.net/~kcoyne/ffacts.htm](http://www.bestweb.net/~kcoyne/ffacts.htm) > [@](#): > > Live testing of ejection systems over the years has included humans, chimpanzees and even bears. The chimpanzee and bear ejections were in the Stanley Supersonic Capsule during its extensive test program. The Stanley capsule was test fired with humans as well prior to its installation in the B-58 Hustler. And yes, it looks like the bear got a parachute. > [@](#): > > Most egress systems are designed to separate from the crew and allow them to decend under a normal parachute. And anyway, the whole point is not just to find out whether the ejection mechanism works–they also want to know how the parachute deployment system does in a real life situation. On RealAudio Air Force News. [http://www.af.mil/news/radio/Mar1997/](http://www.af.mil/news/radio/Mar1997/) > [@](#): > > AF History - Bear tests ejection capsule Somebody go listen to it and see what it says. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2001, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-bear-get-a-parachute/58935/11 "2001-03-24T00:18:04Z")
Thanks Duck Duck Goose. I have been hoping that somebody would find more information. I had this picture in my mind of the government shooting bears wearing collar equipment, from some projectal to see what happens when they reach supersonic speeds. Sort of like shooting the turkey carcasses through jet engines. This being the US government in 1962, I could see them splatting bears all over the ground. ---
**Author:** ![Shiva](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/85e7bf/32.png) [@Shiva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shiva)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2001, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-bear-get-a-parachute/58935/12 "2001-03-24T01:55:35Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Phobia \* > \*\*… I could see them splatting bears all over the ground. \*\* Well they sorta did, but they were using rocket sleds as testbeds before the first ejection seats were built. From: [http://users.deltacomm.com/writerl/jon/jonwft/drama/stapp.htm](http://users.deltacomm.com/writerl/jon/jonwft/drama/stapp.htm) > [@](#): > > They tried it first on a chimpanzee. > > The anesthetized primate was strapped on the sled head-forward, blasted down the track, and brought to a 270 Gs stop. > > The remains of the chimp was, as one officer later put it, a mess. There was no second test, and humans never tried it. > > In fact, animals rode the sled much more often than men, attained much higher velocities, and were subjected to much heavier G forces. Some simply vanished, disintegrated by the air blast. No animals were harmed in the posting of this info. Government research is another story. ---
**Author:** ![sewalk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b3f665/32.png) [@sewalk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sewalk)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2001, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-bear-get-a-parachute/58935/13 "2001-03-25T22:33:21Z")
I can’t believe that you people would think that the bears would be shot into the air without a parachute. Think about it for just a second: You’re about to launch a bear 200 feet up into the air to measure the effects of acceleration stresses on the body of the bear. You get Yogi and his rocket sled up to Mach 1.0 and fire the seat. Said bear flies off into the wild blue yonder _sans parachute_ and smacks into the ground, butt first (this is hypothetical, after all). Now, how do you determine which injuries were sustained during the 10G shove in the ass caused by the rocket powered seat and which injuries were cased by the 500G smack into the ground at the terminus of the trajectory? Seems like the lack of parachute would be rather counter-productive, eh? ---
**Author:** ![Scruff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Scruff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scruff)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2001, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-bear-get-a-parachute/58935/14 "2001-03-25T22:53:29Z")
> [@](#): > > Seems like the lack of parachute would be rather counter-productive, eh? Unbearably counter-productive, I agree. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2001, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-bear-get-a-parachute/58935/15 "2001-03-29T00:44:36Z")
I said with electronics attached to it. I pictured them being sent up with whatever propellling device the goverment cooked up. I am talking about the USA government that subjected groups of people to inhuman testing at the time. A bear would have meant nothing to them. ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2001, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-bear-get-a-parachute/58935/16 "2001-03-29T00:59:42Z")
Unfortunately, the [2nd Canadian Parabear Regiment](http://www.parabear.org/)’s web page is under construction, but the email link is still active if you want to make inquiries as to parachuting bears. In the past they have included both pics and vids of successful parabear drops. 🙂