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So, was the leap/flight actually done or was it a fake?
Mention is made of "double parachute". What was "double" about it?
Well, the guy is obviously lying about something. We all know he couldn't have "gone on for miles," as he said. So right there, I began to doubt him. But he could have jumped off the bridge. Lots of people did that, with or without parachutes or umbrellas or whatever. The Brooklyn Bridge was especially notorious. They used to do it on a dare, or a bet for money. Cops were always on the lookout for jumpers.
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"The Batwing parachute jump will be repeated"
This was a probably a parachute jumper named Mickey Moran who worked the midwest county fair circuit. He was making batwing jumps in 1939, following in the footsteps of Irwin Davis (1935). They were all called "the last of the batwing flyers."
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/7807741//James Wilkensburg was called the first batwing jumper in November 1935 but Hen Langer was making batwing jumps that same week.
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/7807981//I think Clem Sohn probably holds the honor of being first (Spring 1935, above). Lloyd Sproat got hold of Sohn's old wings in 1947, rebuilt them and scheduled some jumps with them on July 27-28.
Betty Goltz was jumping with batwings in 1936. Hazel Campbell Lockhart in 1939. Each gal was called "the only woman ever to fly a batwing." Jimmy Goodwin of The Seven Aces also did batwing jumps before the war. His jump with "artificial wings" was a feature of the National Air Races at Dayton, Ohio in 1936.
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/7807999//"The Humming-bird," Earl Stein was batwing jumping in 1937; Herb Stark in 1939. Lynn White, Tommy Boyd and George Cowan were making "batwing" jumps immediately after the war (1946).
By the summer of 1938, permission was required from the US Dept of Commerce to perform a batwing jump. These were dangerous jumps. The jumper would tumble or the chute would get caught up in the wings. All the batwings were handbuilt and different from each other. One jumper would get killed, then another would take it up because the crowds loved it. By 1948, Tommy Boyd was being called "the only living batwing jumper," but Red Grant was doing them from 10,000 feet with an air circus by 1950. I don't think they ever stopped. Just different guys picking up the act from others who died or just quit.
