Sorry, I can't see a rope being much better than jumping. Do they make
fold-up pocket parachutes/paragliders?
================
a) Good rope would be useful for going down the exterior of the building
as long as you didn't drop it on a side that was on fire...
and you were good at rapelling down tall cliffs quickly, without falling...
b) Yes, they make small, easily portable parachutes. Someone sent around
some info about them on some list... I'll see if I can find it if anyone
is interested. However, to land without risk of serious injury or death
you need some parachuting training / experience...
Basically, regardless of HOW you plan to get out of an endangered high
rise building, you need to figure it out well in advance and practice
doing it quickly and safely.
Many of the people who had done that after the previous WTC bombing did
get out, provided they were not trapped by fire. Exterior escapes for
such a trapped-by-fire situation, though, would require more training.
By the way, a guy named George Willig once climbed the WTC by hand
(using home-made handles that went into the window washing tracks, not
rope), and a guy named Owen J. Quinn parachuted from the top of the
building to the street. (There's a brief article about this, and
Philippe Petit's tight rope walk between the towers, in Sports
Illustrated this week...)
LL+P,
Stephan
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