麻豆社

Everard Calthrop was a railway engineer from Loughton, but he was also something of an inventor.

When his close friend Charles Rolls - of Rolls and Royce fame - died in a plane crash, Calthrop decided to create something that could help to save a pilot's life.

Calthrop's invention was "the Guardian Angel" - the first ever patented design for a parachute. Made in 1913, Calthrop developed it further before offering it to the Royal Flying Corps in 1915. But it was suggested that it "might impair the fighting spirit of pilots" and was rejected.

Calthrop's Guardian Angel design was used to drop agents behind enemy lines during World War One, but when the Royal Air Force finally adopted parachutes after the war, they chose an American design.

Location: The Goldings, Clay Lane, Loughton IG10 2RZ
Image: Still taken from British Path茅 film (ID 1886.30)
Film: Courtesy of British Path茅 (ID 1886.30)