Käthe Paulus was a German exhibition parachute jumper and the inventor of the first collapsible parachute.
At the time, in 1910, the parachute was named the "rescue apparatus for aeronauts.”
The previous parachutes were not able to fit in a case like apparatus worn on the back, thus Paulus' invention became of paramount importance for the Germans in the First World War - she produced over 7,000 parachutes for the German forces.
During the First World War, Paulus created approximately 125 parachutes a week. She was also credited with inventing the "drag 'chute,” an intentional breakaway system where one small parachute opens to pull out the main parachute.
Paulus was an avid aeronaut herself and logged over 510 balloon flights and over 165 parachute jumps in her lifetime.
She was the first German woman to be a professional air pilot and the first German woman aerial acrobat.
1945, Marine pilot Bob Klingman used the propeller of his F4U Corsair to chop off the tail of a Japanese reconnaissance plane.
Because his guns had frozen due to the high altitude, he turned his fighter into a buzzsaw to down the enemy. He then managed to fly back to base even though 6" had broken off one propeller blade while the other two blades were bent back.
Chunks of the Japanese plane were also stuck in the Corsair's engine cowling.
Klingman was awarded the Navy Cross and the Air Medal with Gold Star for his actions
