German lozange camo parachute

drago1983 · 26 May 2021, 12:05 PM

Hi, someone found some old boxes in a military school in Italy with some war souvenir presented by a former student (a famous General) in the ‘20...one of the box was re-opened yesterday...
there was an entire wing fabric from an Austrian aircraft shot down in 1917 and a lozange camo parachute supposed to be taken from the above aircraft . I never see something similar...I believed that were only made in white silk not camo.
After reading some threads in this awesome forum, I believe is probably an Heinecke one but... does someone have any info or seen something like that?? Is there somewhere, museum or private collections, a similar type ?
I will try to get more pics asap.
Thank you in advance for any info!

'14-'18aviationcollector · 26 May 2021, 05:21 PM

I have definitely seen at least one photo of a lozenge camo parachute, here on The Aerodrome I thought, although I have not been able to find any threads which mention them.

drago1983 · 27 May 2021, 07:28 AM

Btw the fighter was shot down on 30 May 1917 and this parachute is supposed to be from that specific aircraft BUT...I read that Heinecke parachute were tested in May 1917 and provided to Units only on 1918...so how it’s possible? Maybe is not from the same aircraft?
Attached pics of the fabric

Volker_Nemsch · 27 May 2021, 01:09 PM

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Why would it have been necessary to use "camouflaged fabric" for a parachute? It was (a bit) heavier than standard material and probably not as easy to fold into the needed shape. So it would have been an unnecessary waste of resources within the hard pressed German war industry...

And - up to now - I've only seen "standard white" WW1 parachutes in connection with pilots and (balloon) observers. Maybe they were used for droppig supplies?

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Volker_Nemsch · 27 May 2021, 01:13 PM

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... you'll find some older stuff here:

http://www.theaerodrome.com/forum/sh...ad.php?t=24811

http://historynet.com/wp-content/upl...Y/HandTool.jpg

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drago1983 · 27 May 2021, 02:45 PM

Thanks for the reply and for the links!
The material of the lozange parachute is very light probably silk so not heavy aircraft fabric, the camo pattern is “stamped” on it....anyway I will soon get more pics.
There is a famous picture of a German pilot wearing the parachute (attached) and the harness is the same! Just check the buckle, straps, ropes and snap hooks...are definitely the same! so I strongly believe is an Heinecke type for pilots not for ballon or supply.
Someone sent me this photo (attached) were a lozange camo pattern is clearly visible on a parachute...I hope they maybe there are other pics or even a piece of a similar parachute.

Volker_Nemsch · 27 May 2021, 11:35 PM

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Thank you for the picture with the "camouflaged parachute". I've never seen something like this before.

Your hint in connection with "stamped" material should be correct, since the original "Rautentarnstoff" pattern was printed onto the fabric.

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sator · 28 May 2021, 12:20 AM

Interesting, never seen that before either. thanks for posting.

Volker_Nemsch · 28 May 2021, 02:19 AM

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... a bit more information about the Heineke parachute:

https://www.freepatentsonline.com/1532588.pdf

Have fun...

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'14-'18aviationcollector · 28 May 2021, 03:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Volker_Nemsch

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Why would it have been necessary to use "camouflaged fabric" for a parachute? It was (a bit) heavier than standard material and probably not as easy to fold into the needed shape. So it would have been an unnecessary waste of resources within the hard pressed German war industry...

And - up to now - I've only seen "standard white" WW1 parachutes in connection with pilots and (balloon) observers. Maybe they were used for droppig supplies?

.

I was only recently made aware of the existence of camouflaged German parachutes too. I have many samples of original lozenge fabric. Since the patterns were printed it added very little weight to the fabric and does not interfere noticeably with the fabric's ability to fold and bend. It's very interesting to read that the lozenge fabric parachute is silk. This makes sense and I'm sure it had comparable qualities to lozenge pattern linen. Presumably it was also printed (the colours are identical to linen lozenge fabric) and did not add significant weight to the silk and did not interfere with the ability of the silk to fold and flex as required.