Former President Bush Trains in Virtual Reality to Jump Again, and Gets It Right
In World War Two, a young Lt. Bush made an emergency jump from his burning torpedo
bomber. Things didn't go right. Eventually rescued by a submarine, Bush was injured and
his crew of two died. For over fifty years, Bush kept secret a wish to be able to jump again, and
get it right. At a Parachute Industry symposium in Houston, Bush finally found the right audience
while being presented with a parachute similar to the one he had used before. The US Parachute
Association and the US Army Golden Knights offered to make this happen.
In pursuit of this goal, this team turned to STI for the use of the unique STI virtual
reality training device. With this equipment, the trainee reaches proficiency on the ground,
before any actual jumps. One specific STI design goal had been to produce a device to train pilots for emergency
parachute situations without the risk of injuries or fatalities that had occured during
Bush's first jump.
On Monday, March 24, 1997, Bush hung in the simulator's parachute harness for 45 minutes of
intensive but enjoyable training with 4600+ jump-expert instructor Larry Pennington, who got a laugh
with his comment; "Takeoffs are optional, landings are mandatory, Mr. President". When
Larry was satisfied that the simulator had taught Bush a high level of parachuting skills, he capped the experience
with a nostalgic change from ground scenes to an aircraft carrier. On Tuesday,
Bush's skills were warmed up with refresher training before his highly successful actual
parachute jump which culminated with a perfect tiptoe landing.
A detailed Press Release is available.
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Last modified April 29th, 2003.
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