Dive for the Bull's-Eye

Parachutists get a boot out of telling the story about the plane with seven people in the cabin -- one terrified chutist and six bruisers to push him out. But all that is ancient history these days. With better chutes and techniques, so many people are hurling themselves out of airplanes for the fun of it that Geronimo has gone back to the Indians, and the birds are taking collision insurance. Last week at Leutkirch, West Germany, 175 of the best jumpers from 31 countries turned up for the seventh biennial world parachuting champion ships. When they had finished leaping into the wild blue 2,104 times, the U.S. team wound up with three of the four titles, exactly duplicating their 1962 victory.

Hanging on a Yo-Yo. Points are awarded in parachuting for style jumps, in which sky divers execute a prescribed series of spins, somersaults, twists and turns during a 120-m.p.h. free fall lasting 25 to 32 sec. But the biggest emphasis is on accuracy jumps, trying to zero in on a target from 1,000 meters and 1,500 meters. Down comes the jumper at a speed of 20 ft. per sec., twisting and turning, pulling on the control lines as he tries to maneuver the chute through the wind to the bull's-eye. In 1962, using standard chutes, there were times when the jumpers looked like they were hanging on the end of a Yo-Yo.

This year the U.S. team turned up with a secret weapon: a radical new "Para-Commander" chute that ought to do for parachuting what fiber glass does for pole vaulters. Instead of the usual umbrella-shaped 28-ft. canopy with a single wedge cut out of it for maneuverability, the 24-ft. Para-Commander has 34 small openings or holes for exhaust vents, comes down almost 50% slower (13 ft. per sec.) and is much more maneuverable. In eight accuracy jumps at Leutkirch, U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Richard T. Fortenberry, 26, hit dead center three times.

Close Shave. Even then he went into his last jump needing to come within 2 meters of the center to beat out Czechoslovakia's Vaclav Klima, 32, who put on an incredible show with an old-style chute. Not a sound could be heard from the 10,000 spectators as Fortenberry drifted down in his red, white and blue chute. Then a roar went up when the P.A. system announced his distance: 1.43 meters, for a whisker-thin victory.

Fortenberry is an old pro at the game. He has 1,450 jumps to his credit, missed the title by scant centimeters in 1960, placed third in 1962 when he competed with a broken collarbone. But the real crowd pleaser was the women's world champion, pert, brown-haired Dallas Secretary Tee Taylor, 22. Three years ago, Tee didn't know a parachute from an umbrella. But then someone invited her to try it and she was skyhooked. She had only 455 jumps when she showed up at Leutkirch, but she won the style event--and averaged a bare 1.44 meters off dead center on her series of two official jumps from 1,000 meters, more than enough to win over the second-place Russian. "Like coming down in an elevator," grinned Tee.

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