Development of Airborne Personnel Platform

The purpose of this paper is to outline the development of the Airborne Personnel Platform. Figure 1 is a photograph of the Platform taken during one of the flights made early this year. Before a discussion of this development, it would be appropriate to consider a little of the background of the development and the reasons for it. In common with the majority of aircraft developments, this one has its roots in the present defense effort. As we all know, the Armed Forces are engaged in a relentless effort to develop new weapons, new tactics, and new defenses to meet, the ever changing concepts of Nilitary preparedness. A keystone of these new tactics is ever increasing dispersal and mobility. For example, dispersal is a necessary defense against atomic weapons, and a concentration of Military forces is necessaxy for offensive action. To bridge the gap between dispersal and concentration requires mobility of these Nilitary forces. The effectiveness of such tactics will depend. in a large measure on the speed or degree of mobility. Although mobility is a problem with many facets, including long range or strategic mobility and medium range mobility, it is in this field of short, range or battle area mobility that the Platform takes on significance. As previously pointed out, within the realm of the battle area mobility, we find an ever increasing need to move men swiftly and easily over any kind of obstacle, natural or otherwise, and over any kind of terrain.