A Matter of Great Faith

Dean Sigler Electric Powerplants Leave a Comment

A technique used by jungle aviation missionaries over 50 years ago may provide an answer to aerial delivery problems such as dropping water on the current radioactive fires in Japan, according to Gaylord Olson, a Princeton, New Jersey reader of the CAFE Blog. Nate Saint was a Mission Aviation Fellowship pilot and missionary to the Auca Indians in the Ecuadorian jungle when he and four others were killed in 1956 by members of the tribe.  Life Magazine published a 10-page article on the group’s martyrdom, and two movies depicted their lives and last hours.  Saint was also an inventive soul, who may have know about early patents for a system he called the “bucket drop,” a method for delivering equipment and supplies to the floor below a rain forest canopy.  In the video, Saint’s son Steve demonstrates the technique. Researchers at Mississippi State University adapted the technique to two-aircraft use, as described in a 1983 paper by Francis M. Wilson, …