The Man Who Tested Parachutes

Charles Agate's daring parachute testing at RAF Ringway transformed airborne warfare, while his post-war struggles reveal a complex legacy. By 1940 the Allies had fallen behind the Axis powers in parachute design and research. Other than as a means of escape from a doomed aircraft, the British regarded parachuting as of little military value. All that changed when the Germans used paratroops, the Fallschirmjäger, to devastating effect in the invasion of the Low Countries, and Churchill demanded