Fall 2026 Militaria and Aviation Auction
Lot 395:
Description
WWII German Luftwaffe Sitzfallschirm Model 30 I S 24 B-SA (Fl 30231, Werk-Nr. 10 39463) seat parachute rig – harness with S A-Schloss Bauart Autoflug quick-release box (Fl 30232-1, Werk-Nr. 4072362) by Dr. Gettwart, Berlin, seat pack, folded canopy silk, Fallschirm-Pruefschein logbook stamped 29 April 1944 with packing entries running into 1945, Feldpost reference L 41118, and canvas carrying bag. Offered here is a remarkably complete Luftwaffe pilot seat-parachute assembly of the Model 30 I S 24 B-SA type, factory-coded Fl 30231, the standard seat pack issued to single-engine fighter and dive-bomber crews flying aircraft such as the Bf 109, Fw 190, and Ju 87, whose bucket-style cockpit seats were purpose-molded to cradle this exact pack beneath the pilot. What distinguishes this example from the ordinary surviving specimen is the survival of its full documentary trail: the accompanying Fallschirm-Pruefschein booklet, printed with the Deutsches Reich Luftwaffe eagle, first officially stamped 29 April 1944 (inspector code F349) and carrying a continuous chain of pencilled packing and inspection entries running from June 1944 through January 1945, together with a Fallschirm-Halter card bearing the Feldpost unit reference L 41118. The Sitzfallschirm 30 series traces its lineage to Irvin parachute patents licensed to German manufacturers between the wars and produced domestically throughout the conflict, its four-point turn-and-press quick-release lock – the S A-Schloss – allowing a pilot to shed the entire harness in a single motion during a bailout or ditching, a critical safety margin given the violent egress conditions typical of high-speed fighter combat over the contracting Reich airspace of 1944-45. The lock box present here retains its engraved data plate fully legible, stamped Bauart Autoflug, Geraet-Nr. 10-10 C-1, Werk-Nr. 4072362, Fl 30232-1, and Hersteller Dr. Gettwart, Berlin, with the release marked GESICHERT for the safed position – a feature that rarely survives intact on rigs broken up or heavily handled since the war. The rig comprises a padded webbing harness of woven cotton/flax construction with reinforced, riveted cross-strapping at the back pad, meeting at the aluminum quick-release box at the chest; the fabric seat-pack container, its stitched Geraet/Fallschirm identification label still sewn to the exterior though the handwritten particulars have faded illegible; the folded pale parachute canopy silk and its stitched rigging lines visible within the pack. The assembly shows honest wartime handling: the webbing displays age toning, light fraying at stitched tabs, and scattered dark soiling; the carrying bag bears heavy field grime and dark staining to its canvas panels; the Pruefschein booklet is creased and toned but fully legible throughout its stamped and hand-annotated pages. A scarce, well-documented Luftwaffe seat-parachute ensemble whose surviving Pruefschein logbook and Feldpost reference tie the hardware and silk directly to a continuous run of wartime inspections spanning April 1944 into 1945.
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