The Skydivers

The Skydivers is a 1963 film directed by Coleman Francis. It stars Kevin Casey as Beth, Eric Tomlin as Joe, Anthony Cardoza as Harry, and Marcia Knight as Suzy. The film contains performances by influential Nashville guitarist Jimmy Bryant.
After being forgotten for three decades it got a second life in 1994, serving the basis for a Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode (during which TV's Frank describes it as like "Manos without the lucid plot"). At one point, the film was the lowest-rated of all time on the Internet Movie Database.[citation needed]

Safety

Despite the perception of danger, fatalities are rare. However, each year a number of people are hurt or killed parachuting worldwide.[2][3] About 30 skydivers are killed each year in the US, roughly one death for every 100,000 jumps (about 0.001%).
In the US and in most of the western world skydivers are required to carry two parachutes. The reserve parachute must be periodically inspected and re-packed (whether used or not) by a certificated parachute rigger (in the US, an FAA certificated parachute rigger). Many skydivers use an automatic activation device (AAD) that opens the reserve parachute at a safe altitude in the event of failing to activate the main canopy themselves. Most skydivers wear a visual altimeter, and an increasing number also use audible altimeters fitted to their helmet.
Injuries and fatalities occurring under a fully functional parachute usually happen because the skydiver performed unsafe maneuvers or made an error in judgment while flying their canopy, typically resulting in a high speed impact with the ground or other hazards on the ground. One of the most common sources of injury is a low turn under a high-performance canopy and while swooping. Swooping is the advanced discipline of gliding parallel to the ground during landing.

Weapons

The Sky fighters were armed with four machine gun cannons, two on either side of the cockpit, and a pod containing missiles mounted under each wing. An unusual design feature of these is that the rear ends of these pods were clearly the fighter’s jet exhausts, though the air intake was mounted beneath the fuselage.
As seen in "Sub-Smash", the Diver section was also armed with torpedoes. They were presumably kept behind concealed hatches, as it is difficult to tell from a cursory study of the Skydiver exterior where the tubes might be. Only one torpedo was ever seen fired in anger, in a manner strangely reminiscent of stock footage from a conventional submarine.

Bases

Only Skydiver 3 was ever seen docked at a base, which was in an underground cavern connected to the sea by a tunnel. It can be assumed other Skydivers were serviced similarly, or else resupplied at sea.

Crew

Skydiver typically had a crew of five or six, of whom the captain was also usually the Sky pilot. The captain’s cabin was directly aft of the main control section. Quarters for the rest of the crew were never seen, and given the size of the submarine – not much longer than a WW2 U-boat, and a third of that taken up with the aircraft section – they could not have been large. It is possible the crew were periodically relieved before they needed somewhere to sleep.

Skydiver 1 is known to have had two captains in the course of the series, Peter Carlin and Lew Waterman. The latter was formerly the astronaut pilot of a lunar interceptor craft; his career is a testament to the flexible employment policies practiced by SHADO. Presumably Carlin was reassigned, but his fate is unrevealed.

Personnel from other SHADO divisions were also seen serving aboard SkyDiver 1 on occasion. Paul Foster spent several months with Waterman's crew, becoming close friends with the captain, as part of his training to become a SHADO operative. Nina Barry, normally a Moonbase operative (and later Moonbase Commander), briefly served as communications officer. SHADO Commander Ed Straker also travelled aboard SkyDiver from time to time, despite his near-crippling claustrophobia.

Propulsion

Skydiver was propelled by twin nuclear turbines, one mounted either side of the hull. There was no external evidence of propellers, so the vessel presumably used some form of magnetohydrodynamic drive or ducted impellers. The submarine was also capable of extremely rapid surface travel in 'seaskim' mode (as seen in the episodes "Sub-Smash" and "Close Up"). This appears to be some form of hydrofoil or hovercraft-type travel, which to judge by the accompanying sounds uses jet or rocket propulsion.
Seaskim may have been designed as a method of overcoming the loss of streamlining caused by the absence of the fighter, which would have reduced Skydiver’s speed underwater.
"Close Up" showed that Skydiver could go from seaskim to an emergency crash dive in a matter of seconds.

Operation

When a UFO penetrated SHADO's defences and reached Earth's atmosphere, the nearest Skydiver would be alerted. The Sky pilot would enter his craft by a hatch in the rear of the fighter and be fed by an unseen hydraulic system into the cockpit. The submarine would tilt up to an angle of about 45 degrees and the fighter would blast off into the atmosphere to intercept the intruder. (This was the usual operation; however, in the episode "Sub-Smash", the crippled Skydiver 1 is able to launch Sky 1 from a much greater depth than usual and with the bow inclined slightly downwards. Skydiver's design included very flexible operational parameters.)

No footage exists of the redocking of Sky and Diver. It can be assumed that the Sky fighter would splash down in the sea and await pickup. The Sky fighters could also touch down on land, though again this was never seen.