Alas, D.B. Cooper Mystery Still Unsolved
As I wrote about in an entry last week, a parachute had been found buried in an area of Oregon where infamous airline hijacker D.B. Cooper might have landed. After further inspection by a parachute experts familiar with the case, the FBI has announced that the uncovered canopy could not have been one of four parachutes given to Cooper the night he hijacked a Northwest Orient Airlines 727 in 1971. The main reason given was that the discovered parachute was made of silk, and the parachutes given to Cooper were made of nylon. This meant the parachute dated back to at least the 1940s.
From World War I until well into the 1940s, parachutes were manufactured from the natural fiber silk, because of its light weight, strength and ability to be packed into a small volume. However, when nylon was invented during WWII, it offered the same properties as silk, but was easier to manufacture and less expensive. So from the late 40s up to today, the majority of parachutes are made of nylon. Now, how this WWII-era chute managed to get buried in an Oregon field is anyone's guess. But it looks like it is not connected to the disappearance of D.B. Cooper, and the mystery still remains unsolved.
From World War I until well into the 1940s, parachutes were manufactured from the natural fiber silk, because of its light weight, strength and ability to be packed into a small volume. However, when nylon was invented during WWII, it offered the same properties as silk, but was easier to manufacture and less expensive. So from the late 40s up to today, the majority of parachutes are made of nylon. Now, how this WWII-era chute managed to get buried in an Oregon field is anyone's guess. But it looks like it is not connected to the disappearance of D.B. Cooper, and the mystery still remains unsolved.
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