Brian Fare looks at the origins of the GQ Parasuit, designed during WWII to offer gunners flying aboard the Defiant the best chance of escape should they need to bale out.
During the 1930’s the Royal Air Force underwent a massive expansion programme, especially in the years running up to the outbreak of the Second World War.
One of the many technical innovations that was proposed, investigated and eventually entered service with the RAF was the Boulton Paul Defiant. This was a single-engine aircraft which incorporated a moveable turret in which the second crew-member, a gunner, would sit.
However, it was the innovative design of the Defiant that itself forced the creation of another, lesser-known, innovation.
If a Defiant’s crew had to abandon their aircraft in flight, the pilot would use a conventional parachute pack and harness, and exit via the open canopy. For the turret gunner, the process was far more complicated.
In an emergency, the gunner’s exit route was through a small hatch in the fuselage floor. This was difficult to reach and only accessible after the seat had been folded. If the gunner wore the conventional parachute pack and harness like the pilot, or a variant such as the Irvin Harnesuit, he would simply not fit through the hatch.
Unlike turret gunners in larger aircraft, there was no room in the fuselage to store the parachute. As a result, Defiant gunners developed their own – unauthorised – escape procedure. By rotating the turret to one side, the sliding doors at the rear of the turret cupola could be opened to the air, allowing the gunner to exit this way instead of the floor hatch.
The RAF was far from happy with this unofficial workaround, and the Air Ministry consequently issued a special contract to the Gregory Quilter Parachute Company to design and produce a flying suit specifically for Defiant turret gunners.
What they developed was an all-in-one smock garment that contained the parachute and harness, as well as a life preserver in the collar. This became known as the GQ Parasuit. Other names it went by were ‘the suit with a chute’ and the ‘Rhino suit’.
A Defiant turret gunner of No 264 Sqn about to climb into his turret wearing a GQ Parasuit at RAF Kirton-In-Lindsey. Image courtesy of Brian Fare.
Based on earlier versions that GQ had exhibited at a display of the Society of British Aerospace Companies at Hendon in 1935, the Defiant version featured a leather double flap at the rear of the smock which was opened when the rip cord was pulled. Upon opening, a spring-loaded drogue chute was released that opened the larger set of canvas flaps holding the main parachute. The life preserver was inflated manually by blowing into a mouthpiece.
The Parasuit weighed only 23lbs and the built-in parachute was only one-and-a-half inches thick. One advert for the Parasuit read:
“Ingenious combination of suit, harness and parachute into one compact unit enables personnel to negotiate the most restricted openings with ease. Exit through an aperture measuring only 12 inches by 18 inches has been accomplished by a man of average proportions wearing the G.Q. Parasuit.”
Just like the Caterpillar Club and the Goldfish Club, airmen who made an emergency exit from an aircraft using a GQ Parasuit were rewarded with a gold set of GQ parachute wings. It is believed that the first of these badges was issued to Pilot Officer Cyril Charles Ellery of No 264 Squadron after bailing out of Defiant L7004 at approx. 15,000ft following structural damage to the starboard wing resulting in it breaking up in flight.
GQ Parasuit wings. Image courtesy of IWM.
Brian Fare served in the RAF between 1985 and 2012 as an Airframe Engineer. He currently works for the RAF Association and is a member of its Melton Mowbray Branch. More of his writing can be found at historyfare.co.uk
Pilot Flight Sergeant E R Thorn and gunner Sergeant F J Barker, wearing his GQ Parasuit. The pair became the most successful Defiant partnership of the war with a tally of 12.5 victories. The teddy bear was presented by their groundcrew, and became their lucky mascot. Image courtesy of IWM.
“Should you have occasion to bale out anywhere, anytime, using GQ equipment, you automatically qualify for membership of the GQ Club.”
