Actually wump the rate of decent was alot faster for many ww1. As many of the cockpots were just big enough for a pilot. So they didnt wear chutes until the end of the war.

WWI pilot were forbidden to wear parachutes. So the game designers decided that the current speed is just fine.

1) Tons of people say that the parachute is the deadliest of all.
2) You and maybe another one or two people report that the parachute falls too slow and is too easy to kill.

The game designers looked at it and upon a group of game designers discussion decided it is a good balance: it is deadly but also very vulnerable.

Wumper wrote: I have reported several times that I felt we parachuted at a very slow rate. We were just sitting ducks for any plane close by.

So I checked. During WWI, the rate of descent in a parachute was reported to be 20 feet per second.

I fly very close to the ground, usually at 200 feet or less. When I get shot down, I jump when the timer registers
1 second. But a strange thing happens, I seem to float for another 5+ seconds.

I will continue to check and record, but maybe the game designers might want to look into this, and reduce the descent time.

20 feet per second is around 6 meters, if you fell that fast there's no way you could get up and get to your tank , with broken legs and all!

Yeah, at 20 feet/second you would probably be dead on your first jump.