America Lost All Silk — DuPont Turned Coal into Nylon and Saved WWII Pilots скачать в хорошем качестве

America Lost All Silk — DuPont Turned Coal into Nylon and Saved WWII Pilots

On December 7, 1941, Japanese bombs destroyed America's Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, severing the supply line for one of the military's most critical materials: silk. Nearly every parachute in the US military inventory was made from Japanese silk, with approximately 80 million pounds imported annually before the war. Within hours of the attack, that supply became enemy territory. The timing was catastrophic. America planned to train hundreds of thousands of airborne troops and air crew, all requiring parachutes. Each B-17 bomber carried ten parachutes for its crew, and fighter pilots depended on them as their only means of escape from disabled aircraft. Paratroopers would need silk canopies to jump from C-47 transports into combat. But the silk was gone. Japan controlled 90% of the world's raw silk production, and what remained in American warehouses would equip perhaps 10,000 parachutes—a fraction of wartime needs. Without parachutes, America couldn't field an air force.