FIFTY years ago this month, five RAF parachute instructors set a world record for jumping from 42,500ft - eight miles above the Salisbury Plain.

The high altitude jump saw the men in freefall for about three minutes before they opened their parachutes at 2,200ft. The previous record was from 32,000ft with parachutes opening at 4,000ft.

Based at the Ministry of Technology’s Aeroplane and Armament Experimental Establishment at Boscombe Down, the group were conducting a series of tests to develop a suitable oxygen system from such heights.

Peter Keane, 88, who lives in Durrington was one of the five on the test parachute team that day. Having previously been a survival instructor in the Far East, dropping into disaster situations such as plane crashes in the Malayan jungle, he was accustomed to living life on the edge.

Recalling the events of June 22, 1967, he said: “We jumped at two-second intervals, I was last out. Because the aircraft was still minutely climbing, as we were exiting the hydraulics system began packing up but there was nobody who was going to stop me from jumping.

“When you jump at such a height, you lose consciousness for three or four seconds and the gauge altimeters we had at the time only went up to 20,000ft so you had to be fully awake in order to see it pass the first 20,000ft because if you operated the chute too early, you would run out of oxygen.

We were all lucky.

“The boffins did their sums wrong though and the miscalculation meant we ended up landing 1,000 yards away which was quite an error, other than that there were no problems.

Three or four months after our descent, the Americans went out and jumped from 45,000ft, typical Americans. But they opened their parachutes at between 10,000ft and 11,000ft, whereas we opened ours at 2,200ft.”

Before high altitude jumps, the crew would have to undergo preoxygenation and cover their faces with chamois-leather to prevent frostbite.

Mr Keane who conducted just under 2,000 jumps in his career spent 11 years on the test parachute team.

He said: “If there was a problem with a parachute, they would give it to us and we would jump and jump to prove we could overcome the problem.

We tested all manner of parachutes and equipment for looking after, and the betterment, of the airborne soldier.

“At the beginning we never wore reserve parachutes - either the first one opened or it didn’t.”

Mr Keane, from Kilrush in Ireland, first joined the RAF in Belfast at the age of 17 when his brother forged his father’s signature on his permission slip. He spent 38 years in the RAF becoming a champion boxer, a physical training instructor and working as rear crew escape on a Vulcan.

Being under eight stone in weight, he was the lightest parachute member on the team.

Telling the Journal what he enjoyed about the job, he said: “It was the sensation of falling free, the adrenalin just builds up and as soon as your feet touched the ground, you want to get straight up and do it again.”