Sir, - John Bielenberg's letter, which you published on December 12th, outlines a method of feeding starving people which I believe merits serious consideration. If it does have a limitation, this lies in the necessarily small size of food sachet which can be allowed to fall freely.
The use of a larger package, say up to five kg, would allow familiar foods such as cereals to be dropped, as well as other basics such as blankets or even water. This would seem to imply the use of parachutes, which in turn would render the operation unrealistically expensive. Small parachutes are cheap enough to manufarture; the expense lies in the packaging and in the opening mechanism.
If, however, the container was provided with a simple one-piece plastic parachute or air brake, and if this was dropped from an already-open position, then the cost of retarding the fall could amount to less than 70p per package. The parachute, just a single sheet or assembly of day-glo plastic, would be suspended in the aircraft from an upper central cord or button, with the container hanging or supported beneath.
A convenient way to arrange this would be long racks holding rows of containers above the air-craft hatch. Quick-release racks, or removing a lower support to allow the parachutes to break away under the weight of the containers, would ensure that the containers fell with the parachutes already deployed.
Finally, a proposal as good as John Bielenberg's deserves an appropriate name. How about "Operation Manna"? - Yours, etc.,
Killincarrig, Delgany, Co Wicklow.