Local history: Whoosh! Goodrich developed escape slide for jets

It’s something you hope you’ll never use, but you’re thankful it’s there in case of emergency.

Whoosh! The inflatable evacuation slide, standard equipment in commercial airlines worldwide, is a product of Akron ingenuity.

The B.F. Goodrich Co. developed the escape device in the late 1960s for Boeing as it prepared to introduce the 747 jumbo jet.

Cuyahoga Falls inventor John M. Fisher, a Goodrich engineer, applied for a U.S. patent in 1967 for “an improved escape chute.”

“In the event of an aircraft emergency, such as a crash landing or crash takeoff, it is often necessary to evacuate the passengers from the aircraft as quickly as possible due to the danger of fire and explosion,” Fisher explained. “In most instances, it is not possible to furnish an exterior set of stairs to permit the passengers to descend from the emergency exits in the aircraft.”

Airlines stored folded chutes that had to be manually dropped to the ground from emergency exits. Two crew members exited the plane and held the sheets taut as passengers slid down to safety.

“The most obvious disadvantage of this flexible sheet form of escape chute is that it requires that personnel first descend from the aircraft in order to be in a position for holding the unattached end of the escape chute,” Fisher noted. “It was desirable, therefore, to develop a slide device that would extend from the aircraft to the ground without the requirement of ground assistance.”

Fisher proposed equipping jets with rubber-coated nylon slides that would automatically inflate when emergency doors opened. The slides would provide a comfortable cushion as passengers descended to safety.

Clinton B. McKeown, president of B.F. Goodrich aerospace and defense products, supervised the project. Goodrich’s James Temo, a member of Akron’s famous family of chocolatiers, served as main design engineer.

‘The Queen of the Skies’

The double-deck Boeing 747, “The Queen of the Skies,” could hold more than 500 passengers. In 1967, the Federal Aviation Administration ordered manufacturers to build enough exits to evacuate jets within 90 seconds. Under the previous standard, two minutes had been sufficient.

Boeing packed Goodrich slides inside the door panels of all 11 exits on a 747. When emergency doors opened from the inside, the devices automatically deployed and inflated “by the combined action of a cool-gas generator and air aspirator.”

With a whoosh of air, the slides took only five seconds to inflate to full length.

“They are airtight and buoyant,” Goodrich advertised. “Special tension panels provide stiffening, prevent buckling. Large inflatable double railings at the top, a built-in deceleration area near the bottom, and automatic grounding of static electricity are additional safety features.”

Like kids swarming a playground, Goodrich engineers tested the slides over and over again. In a simulated emergency conducted in a darkened hangar in Seattle in November 1969, around 500 people evacuated the jumbo jet in 90 seconds.

The Boeing 747, the world’s largest commercial airliner, went into service in January 1970. First lady Pat Nixon christened the first one, a Pan Am model, at Dulles International Airport near Washington, D.C.

Safe escape during hijacking

It was a baptism by fire for the 747. When hijackers boarded a Pan Am flight from Amsterdam to New York and forced it to land in Cairo on Sept. 7, 1970, all passengers and crew members escaped harm on Goodrich’s inflatable slides. They evacuated the cabin in 90 seconds and reached safety before terrorists blew up the jet with explosives.

Goodrich continued to improve upon the design of its slides. In 1973, engineers used the swimming pool at the Akron YMCA to test an escape chute that could double as a life raft in the water. The device could seat 20 people in an emergency while others held onto the edges.

Using the aircraft technology, the Akron company also made inflatable slides for offshore oil rigs. The devices measured up to 95 feet and could evacuate 60 people a minute.

Over the next decade, Goodrich won millions of dollars in contracts to provide emergency evacuation slides for Boeing, McDonnell Douglas and Airbus. Its inflatable systems whisked people to safety during emergencies around the world.

Unfortunately, B.F. Goodrich decided to slide out of Akron. In 1987, the company announced it would cease its local operations, laying off 790 workers, closing three manufacturing divisions and transferring work to North Carolina and Florida.

Michelin, United Technologies, Safran and Collins Aerospace were among the global companies to acquire Goodrich’s various components.

Boeing produced its final 747 in December 2022, delivering the jumbo jet to Atlas Air in January.

Akron’s inflatable ingenuity continues to be packed inside the door panels of commercial airlines around the world.

Hopefully, it won’t be needed.

But with a whoosh of air, it’s available just in case.

Mark J. Price can be reached at mprice@thebeaconjournal.com

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This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: B.F. Goodrich developed evacuation slides for Boeing jets