How Much Air Can One Get in a Willys Jeep?

When one thinks of the United States Armed Forces taking to the skies, one pictures a plane. How trite! Of course, with enough verve and pluck and speed, most any vehicle can become airborne. Sometimes, for example, the army delivers multi-ton tanks to ground forces via airdrop. Take a gander at this video, in which four M551 Sheridan Light Tanks float down thousands of feet from a cargo plane like so many heavy-artillery-equipped dandelion puffs. The Army has done similar things with boats. And, in Texas in 1943, a duo of drab-clad youths once took an unsuspecting Willy’s Jeep toward the sky to, quote, “Prove They Can Take It.” The driver is out of his seat, enthralled; the passenger is bracing for impact. That’s because, of course, any old person can take sailing through the air in a Jeep—it’s surviving the landing that takes mettle.