Older Controlled Descent Tower | parachute drop tower

USA / Georgia / Fort Benning South /
 parachute drop tower  Add category
This is the "Controlled Descent Tower" at the US Army Airborne School. Similar to the other 250-foot towers, except the intrepid Pvt. Snuffy is guided in his descent by 8 cables attached to an octagon shaped frame on the middle of the tower arm that run through the circular rig his chute is attached to and down to the ground.

I imagine the idea was to test parachute expansion or something, since no paratrooper in history has ever landed at a perfect 90-degree angle with a metal frame attached to his chute. Alternately, maybe it was constructed to minimize the risk that Pvt. Snuffy will get blown into the steel and require a rescue (as happens all the time when the normal drop towers get used).

This tower is apparently not part of the curriculum at the school anymore (if it ever was) and I have never seen it used or even mentioned. If I recall, it looked like it had not been used in some time. Please add details if you know them, there is zero useful info on the web and I've always wondered what the hell this thing was for.

www.benning.army.mil/historictrail/images/tower_cables....
Nearby cities:
Coordinates:   32°21'33"N   84°58'9"W

Comments

  • This particular tower is inactive and is no longer used/serviceable.
  • Never saw it used either. I doubt it's been used since the 50s, or maybe earlier. I believe ALL of the original World's Fair towers were of this type, since the original towers were supposed to be a kind of amusement part ride demonstrating the new technology of reliable parachutes. Like you said, it's not really very useful for training purposes. Then again, neither are the modified "drop" style ones with the cones. In '03 we only saw malfunction demonstrations with dummies and maybe 3 or 4 actual drops; then a guy went into the steel (on a windless day, no less) and they called it off.
  • Not to mention there's a goddamn house built under this tower...and it's maybe 25 feet from the street. Fort Benning historians, sound off!
  • FYI - The towers were part of the 1939 World's Fair in New York. Two of the remaining three towers are still used regularly as part of the Airborne training program as of this comment date. A fourth tower was destroyed by a tornado in 1954. However, there is not a "god___ house built under the tower". It is a open equipment building that was built under a separate contract concurrent with the erection of the towers and are part of the overall facility. The towers and their associated equipment buildings are part of their own Historic District being included in the National Register of Historic Places. -Fort Benning Historian
This article was last modified 11 years ago